The Qatar Stars League (QSL) held the draw for 2019-20 season Ooredoo Cup at its headquarters in Al Bidda Tower on Sunday, 1st September, 2019, in the presence of Mr. Ahmed Al Adsani, Director of Competitions Department at QSL, Mr. Mohammed Al Ansari, Director of Field Marketing and Activation at Ooredoo Qatar, and representatives of First Division clubs competing in the tournament this season (Al Sadd, Al Duhail, Al Sailiya, Al Rayyan, Al Ahli, Al Arabi, Al Shahania, Al Gharafa, Umm Salal, Al Khor, Qatar SC and Al Wakrah) in addition to representatives of the media and official broadcaster.

Mr. Al Adsani welcomed all attendees at the draw ceremony and highlighted that the tournament would be held this season under the patronage of Ooredoo, one of the major national companies. He said the QSL was proud of the association and appreciated Ooredoo’s role as well as hoping that the common goals would be achieved.

Mr. Al Ansari said, “With the draw made and knowing the exciting contests between the teams in the group stage, we along with all sports fans in Qatar are eagerly awaiting the tournament’s start to enjoy a strong and fair competition. At Ooredoo, we’re delighted to be partnering the QSL in sponsoring this tournament and we’re always looking forward towards contributing to the sport in Qatar, which is hosting many major tournaments.”

The groups

The ranking of clubs in the draw was based on their final standings in the 2018-19 QNB Stars League. Teams were divided into two groups.

Group A: Al Sadd, Al Shahania, Al Ahli, Umm Salal, Al Rayyan, Al Wakrah.

Group B: Al Duhail, Al Khor, Al Sailiya, Qatar SC, Al Arabi, Al Gharafa.

The tournament’s schedule and venues will be finalised later in co-ordination with the authorities concerned.

Technical Meeting

Following the draw, a technical meeting was held under the chairmanship of Mr. Al Adsani and in the presence of the representative of Referees Committee Mr. Abdullah Al Balooshi as well as representatives of competing clubs.

The meeting discussed organisational matters and the tournament’s format, which has round-robin group stage followed by knockouts from the quarterfinals. It stressed the need to meet the deadlines set on match days, told each team about the need to make main and reserve players compete in the games besides selecting jersey colours of each team’s players.