Tomorrow, Wednesday, the Arab Clubs Championship for Men’s Basketball will start in Kuwait in its thirty-fourth edition, amid expectations of an expansion of the competition for the title, unlike in recent years when the identity of the candidate teams was known in advance, such as Al-Ittihad of Alexandria, the leader of this tournament and the record holder (7) times. He was succeeded by the Lebanese Al-Reiady (5) times, the Egyptian Al-Ahly, the defending champion, the Lebanese Beirut, the competitor of the Alexandrian Itihad in the 31st and 32nd editions, and finally Kuwait, the Kuwaiti runner-up of the last tournament in Alexandria, the host of the current edition, who is eager to change the previous equation and take advantage of all the new conditions, whether the factor of the land and the audience, and making use of new professionals with the aim of grabbing the title.
16 teams are participating in the tournament, divided into four groups. The first includes Kuwait, Al-Ittihad of Alexandria, Al-Ahly of Aleppo- Syria, and Al-Ahly of Benghazi, Libya. The second group which is iron group includes the defeating champion A-Ahly of Egypt, Al-Riyadi of Lebanon, The Gharafa of Qatar and Al-Minaa from Yamen, the third group includes Al-Ahly of Bahrain, Al-bashaer from Oman, Kazma from Kuwait and Al-Sadd of Qatar and the fourth group includes Al-Jahra, the Kuwaiti, the Lebanese Beirut, the Algerian Wedad Boufarik, and the Iraqi Degla.
The opening round will witness six games distributed to the Al-Ittihad and Kuwait Club halls. In the first, Al-Ahly of Egypt will start the journey to defend its title in front of Al-Minaa at three in the afternoon Kuwait time, followed at the five of afternoon, Al-Ittihad of Alexandria and Al-Ahly of Aleppo, Syria, then the opening ceremony, and immediately after it, the host club will meet with Al-Ahly Benghazi; at the Kuwait Hall Al-Ahly of Bahrain will meet Al-Sadd of Qatar, at three in the afternoon, followed by Al-Bashaer and Kazma, then Al-Jahra and Degla.
The preliminary round continues until next Saturday, provided that the teams get a rest the next day, then the second-round games begin on Monday, October 10, followed by the quarter-final matches on Wednesday, the semi-finals on Friday, and the final on Saturday.
Al Karkawi expects an exceptional tournament
For his part, Major General Ismail Al Karkawi, President of the Arab and UAE Basketball Federations, expected that the current version would be exceptional, hoping that it would reflect the remarkable development witnessed by Arab basketball year after year, stressing that all efforts of the Arab Federation would be harnessed for the success of the tournament.
العربية