Al Kharaitiyat have just signed Nassif Al Bayawi as new coach for the coming season. The Tunisian last coached Al Khor, replacing Frenchman Laurent Banide in November, 2017, and guided The Knights to eighth position in this season’s QNB Stars League.

The Thunders were coached by Tunisian Ahmad Al Ajlani and then Syrian Yasser Sebaei after the former’s dismissal last season.

Al Bayawi is no stranger to Al Kharaitiyat having assisted another French coach Bernard Simondi there. The team’s Football Head Mansoor Moussa acknowledged this fact while speaking to QSL Online in an exclusive interview.

“We realised that the best choice to lead our side is Al Bayawi since he knows Qatar football well. We were negotiating with a Moroccan coach, but we settled on Al Bayawi and signed a one-season contract that’s renewable. We’ve high hopes in the new coach and we expect him to help the team have a good time next season, especially after a tough campaign which saw us finish 11th and go into the play-off with Al Wakrah, which we won,” said Mansoor.

The official said the club was finalising matters such as recruitments for the new season and site of the summer training camp. They are being done in close co-ordination between the club management, technical staff and officials. The coach’s words will be taken into consideration while selecting foreign or local players.

Replying to a question about Al Kharaitiyat’s professional players — Moroccans Anwar Diba as well as Rachid Tiberkanine, Uzbek Sanjar Tursunov and Ivorian Josue Mohey, Mansoor said, “Both Anwar and Rachid still have valid contracts with the club. Regarding Sanjar and Mohey, new coach Al Bayawi is the one who will decide whether to keep them or not. He had indicated that several meetings will be convened in the coming days to clear some pending issues related to the football team.”

Mansoor stressed the fact that everyone in the club was not satisfied with the team’s performance last season.

“We faced many difficulties. But we hope to put behind all that and turn a new leaf in the season to come,” Mansoor concluded.