Al Ahli set for Arab clubs basketball

TDT | Manama                                                                        

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s Al Ahli Club have been drawn in a tough Group C for the preliminary round of the 34th Arab Clubs Basketball Championship, taking place October 5 to 15 in Kuwait City.

The draw for the competition was held yesterday by the Arab Basketball Confederation (ABC) in a virtual conference hosted by officials from the ABC headquarters in Egypt.

Sixteen teams from across the region are set to lock horns in the tournament, with three clubs representing host nation Kuwait. Ahli are the only Bahraini outfit in the competition. The Kingdom’s representatives have been drawn in Group C alongside Kazma from Kuwait, Al Sadd from Qatar and Al Bashaer from Oman.

Group A features host team Al Kuwait Sports Club, Al Ittihad of Alexandria from Egypt, Ahli Aleppo of Syria, and Al Ahly Benghazi from Libya. Group B is comprised of defending champions Al Ahly of Egypt, Al Riyadi Club Beirut of Lebanon, Al Gharafa from Qatar, and a club from Yemen; while Group D consists of Jahra from Kuwait, Beirut Club of Lebanon, Wedad Boufarik of Algeria, and Tigris from Iraq.

Bahrain’s Ahli head into the competition as one of the top teams from the Kingdom. They had won back-to-back league titles in the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 seasons, as well as an historic “three-peat” for the prestigious Khalifa bin Salman Cup in both those campaigns as well as last season.

Ahli have also won the Bahrain Super Cup the past two seasons, and will be going for a third successive crown when they meet Manama in this year’s Super Cup clash on September 22. Ahli have a formidable core of top Bahraini players, who include guards Maitham Jameel, Hesham Sarhan and Ali Aqeel; and forwards Mohammed Kowayed, Mohammed Qurban and Subah Hussain, to name a few.

They are coached by veteran Bahraini tactician Aqeel Milad. In last year’s Arab clubs championship, which was held in Alexandria, the title was won by Al Ahly of Egypt after defeating Al Kuwait in the final 78-66.

Manama were the Bahraini representatives last year. They did not make it past the opening stage after losing three of their four games. Their sole victory came against Al Bataeh of the UAE, and suffered defeats to Beirut, Gharafa and Al Kuwait.

A total of 18 teams from across the region took part in last year’s event, and they were also divided into four groups for the preliminaries.