Doha, Qatar: Two matches will be held on Saturday, to open the first round of the Qatar Basketball League for the 2025-2026 sports season, with the participation of nine clubs.
Saturday's matches will see Al Rayyan take on Qatar SC, while Al Sadd will play Al Wakrah. Both matches will be held at the Al Gharafa Sports Club Hall.
The first round of the competition will be completed next Monday, with two matches. The first will see Al Shamal take on Al Khor, while the second will see Al Ahli take on Al Gharafa, also at the Al Gharafa Sports Club Hall.
Al Arabi, the defending champions of last season's league, will rest during this round.
The Qatari league matches continue at an intense pace until the sixth round, scheduled for November 5, before the competition is temporarily suspended to allow the Qatari national team to participate in the first window of the Asian qualifiers for the 2027 FIFA World Cup Qatar.
The Qatari national team will meet its Lebanese counterpart on November 27 in Doha, and then face them again in Beirut on November 30.
This will be a competition in which 80 teams will compete for 31 places in the finals, with our national team participating as host.
The first half of the general league will conclude on December 13, while the second half will begin on the 20th of the same month and continue until January 17, 2026.
This will give the teams a rigorous preliminary stage before entering the final stages.
The new season will see the implementation of a play-off system, with play-off matches held for teams ranked third through sixth.
The stage begins with the third-place team facing off against the fourth-place team.
The winner advances directly to the semi-finals to face the league's second-place team, while the fifth-place team faces the sixth-place team.
The loser is eliminated from the competition.
The winner will then play the loser of the third-place match against the fourth-place team to determine a finalist.
The semi-finals and play-off matches will be held in a best-of-three format to determine the team that advances to the final, which will be held between February 2 and 7, 2026.
