Al Najma to face defending champs in opening Asian clubs handball tiff

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain champions Al Najma get their campaign off in the 23rd Asian Men’s Club Handball League Championship next month against previous winners Al Arabi of Qatar. That game is scheduled for June 12 on the first day of the competition, which is to be held in Jeddah.

The tournament’s preliminary round schedule was released yesterday by the Asian Handball Federation (AHF).

Najma, who are back-to-back league champions and winners of the first-ever Khalid bin Hamad Handball Cup, are in a tough Group A for the tournament. Aside from Arabi, the other teams in their pool are Shahid Kazeroon Club of Iran, Al Salmiya of Kuwait and Mudhar of Saudi Arabia.

Najma’s next game will be against Shahid Kazeroon on June 14, before taking on Mudhar on June 16 in their last group fixture. Group B consists of Al Wehda of Saudi, Uzbek Club of Uzbekistan, Al Qaten of Yemen, Mes Kerman of Iran, Al Duhail of Qatar and Al Kuwait Club of Kuwait.

The top two squads in each pool move on to the semi-finals, while the remaining teams play in classification matches on June 19.

The bronze and gold medal games are then scheduled for June 21. Najma head into the tournament as the only Bahraini side.

They are the only club from the Kingdom to have won the championship in past editions, having taken the 2017 title when the event was played in Hyderabad, India. Najma has also won the silver and bronze medals once each.

Other Bahraini teams to taste some success in the competition are Al-Hilal Club, who has won bronze twice before; and Al Ahli and Barbar, who had both one third-place once each.

The club's championship was supposed to be played last year but was postponed by the AHF due to the COVID-19 pandemic.