The Columbia University men’s soccer team delegation was enriched with experience and expertise after it paid a visit to the Qatar Stars League Management (QSLM) headquarters at the Al Bidda Tower in Doha.

The week-long visit to Qatar by the New York-based prestigious university’s delegation, consisting of 23 players and six coaching staff, was an initiative by the Embassy of Qatar to the United States and Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

It was aimed at promoting educational, cultural and sports exchange programme to encourage the sharing of ideas, values, traditions and experiences between American and Qatari students in order to advance global citizenship and create the closest possible connections between people from both countries.

The delegates included the Ivy League team’s head coach Kevin Anderson as well as assistant coaches Ken Pollard and Amphone Keovongmanysar.

Hisham Elkoustaf, Senior Advisor to the Ambassador of Qatar to the US and also a former footballer at Columbia University, highlighted the efforts made by Qatar’s Ambassador to the US Sheikh Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani and Sara Al Saadi in making the trip possible.

The QSLM delegation which welcomed the visiting officials included Operations Executive Director Abdulla Ali Al Hammadi, Marketing and Communications Acting Executive Director Hassan Rabea Al Kuwari, Competitions and Football Development Department Acting Executive Director Mohammad Ahmad, Head of Corporate Services Bader Al Mansouri, Head of Operations Ahmed Al Sayed, Football Development Director Miguel Heitor, Head of Competitions Maksat Klychmamedov, Business Planning and Club Licensing Director David McVeigh and General Events Head Nathan Findlay.

Klychmamedov and Heitor gave presentations on the QSLM’s Competitions and Football Development respectively.

Klychmamedov spoke about the objectives and running of Competitions, aspects of organisation, calendar, match schedule, accreditation system, delivery of football equipment to stadiums, safety and security measures conforming to QSLM standards, match operations, anti-match fixing system and future plans.

Heitor mainly dealt with the four pillars — Match analysis, Training analysis, Education in Match as well as Training analysis and Operation of Match and Training analysis systems. He also touched on collection of technical and physical data, technical and physical performance, role of performance analysts, analysis of QNB Stars League matches and players’ technical, tactical and physical performances, interpretation of data and the effective use of technology.

Anderson spoke highly of their visit to the QSLM.

“We believe we’ve achieved our goals and it was amazing to get to know about the various aspects of functioning of QSLM at a highly-professional manner. We hope this visit will lead to future co-operation between the Columbia University and football fraternity in Qatar,” said Anderson.

The delegation, which also visited the Aspire Academy, Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, Hamad bin Khalifa University and Education City, Museum of Islamic Art and International Centre for Sport Security, will return to New York on Sunday, 18th March.

The Columbia University team played a competitive match against Qatar’s Al Sadd Under-19 side, coached by Moulud Radouine, at the latter’s training ground on Wednesday.

The game offered both sides good exposure in a competitive atmosphere. The visitors, with an average age of 20 years, displayed their skills against Al Sadd juniors, who also grabbed the opportunity to show their abilities.

Zamel Al Kuwari captained the Al Sadd side, while Alex Bangerl led Columbia University in the first half and Arthur Bosua in the second session of the match officiated by Sameer Ahmed, with Abderahman Sadiq and Hamada Omar being his assistants.

Dylan Castanheira in the goal, Haris Stamboulidis in the defence, and John Denis and Matthew Swain in the attack were some of the players who excelled for the famous Ivy League’s last edition runners-up.

Junior and Abdulrahman Al Korbi led the charge for Al Sadd, whose goal was kept by Adham Metwali.

The university team is to wind up the Qatar visit with a game against the Qatar national Under-21 side at the Aspire ground on Saturday.