The QSL, the highest professional football league has formally announced the fixtures for the first leg of the 2016/2017 season.
The league is set to kick off on Thursday the 15th of September when Al Ahli entertain Al Gharafa at the Hamad bin Khalifa stadium, KO at 18:00. Later on in the 20:10 KO, Al Sailiya will face off against Al Arabi in what will be the first taste of QSL action for new Arabi coach Gerardo Pelusso in the same venue.
Other highlights from the first weekend of action include reigning QSL champions Al Rayyan taking on newly promoted Al Shahania on Saturday the 17th of September KO 18:00 at Jassim bin Hamad stadium. Whilst El Jaish, who finished last season in second place will take on Al Wakrah on Sunday the 18th of September at the Abdullah bin Khalifa stadium, KO 18:00 which will bring to an end the first round of action.
Whilst the second round is set to start on the 22nd of September, with highlights on Thursday being big spending Al Arabi taking on El Jaish in the late 20:00 KO at the Grand Hamad stadium. Xavi’s Al Sadd will have a tough home fixture against Al Ahli on Friday the 23rd of September, KO 20:00. The second week’s action of the QSL comes to a close when Al Gharafa welcomes Lekhwiya to the Thani Bin Jassim stadium in the 20:00 KO, which could be seen as an early test for Gharafa’s top four aspirations.
The league will then take a short break for the upcoming 2018 World Cup Qualifiers and resume on Friday the 14th of October. You can check out all of the remaining fixtures for your club here.
QSL 2016/2017 fixtures- The Process
With the QSL formally announcing the fixtures for the 2016/2017 season, QSL online has had a closer look at the process and reasoning behind the fixtures being chosen with a conversation with the QSL sport department.
Firstly in creating the 2016/2017 QSL fixtures the Sport team took into consideration the requirements of the following organizations:
· FIFA match days
· AFC
· Qatar National Team
· Our representative in the AFC Champions League
· Security
· Host broadcaster Al Kass
· The ministry of Culture & Sport
· QSL Marketing & Events teams
The principle of the fixtures is that the top 7 teams of last year’s QSL will face the bottom 7 of the QSL including the two promoted teams. Whilst following this fixtures have been given in such a way to ensure that all teams will face mixed abilities over the course of the season.
So for example, you will not have a scenario where the top four sides from last season will play their top four rivals in two consecutive matches. Sides have been drawn in such a way that they will not have more than 2 consecutive matches either home or away to ensure fairness. The sport department was eager to stress that the fixtures where not chosen by the names of the sides, rather than their ranking last term.
El Jaish, who are Qatar’s only representative in the AFC Champions League, will play the last game of round 1 on Sunday so to give them appropriate time to recover. Should El Jaish progress further in the continental competition, then appropriate changes will be made to the schedule with all parties involved being informed accordingly.
The timings of the 2016/2107 QSL season have been carefully considered, around Maghreb Prayer time. From rounds 1-6 the season will be running on summer time, meaning that players and officials will have the chance to pray after the final minutes of their sides warm up. Accordingly, the evening kick offs will start approximately 2 hours and 10 minutes after the first match.
Whilst from round 7 the timing will revert to a winter format, meaning an earlier start to matches, with Maghreb prayers falling in-between halftime. This will ensure that all players and officials have the chance to pray, as per the Islamic traditions of the state of Qatar.
Finally, the 2016/2017 QSL fixtures was the first time that the league sent a draft copy to all 14 QSL sides for appropriate feedback. Of the sides contacted, Al Sadd, Lekhwiya and Al Sailiya all sent official letters on their comments; Whilst Al Kharitiyat and Al Shahania raised informal questions on the schedule.
In the spirit of fairness the QSL sports team reached out to all concerned parties and shared their reasoning, and eventually led to the final approved fixture list, which has been distributed today on Thursday the 4th of August, 2016 which is 43 days prior to the start of the QSL season.
You can find a full fixture list here.
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