The Qatar volleyball team, which will make their debut in the prestigious FIVB World League on June 17 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, have launched their preps at the QVA Hall in Doha, under watchful eyes of Head Coach Roberto Piazza.
The Italian arrived in the Qatari capital recently from Greece and picked 19 players from the League and Emir Cup champions Al Arabi Club, El Jaish, Al Rayyan Club, Police and Al Sadd Club for the preliminary camp.
Al Rayyan Club’s six players have been chosen in the Qatari squad, while Al Arabi Club have their players five included.
The rise of the army team was quite spectacular this season as they won the QVA Cup against Al Arabi Club and finished runners-up in both the Qatar Cup and Emir’s Cup. This reflected in their four players getting call-up for the camp. Three Police players and Al Sadd Club’s Rahimi Wadidi have also found places in the national squad.
After the Doha camp ends, the Qatar squad will move to Maribor, Slovenia to intensify preparations from June 4 to 15. Then the players will arrive in Ljubljana where the opening match against home team Slovenia on June 17.
The squad:
Liberos: Marko Stevanovic (El Jaish), Suleiman Saeed (Al Rayyan), Abdulrahman Bologai (Al Arabi)
Setters: Georgiov Borislav (Police), Andre Luis (Al Rayyan), Milos Stevanovic (El Jaish)
Position 2 & 4: Rahimi Wadidi (Al Sadd), Mubarak Dahi Waleed (Al Rayyan), Juma Faraj (Al Arabi), Bojan Djukic (El Jaish), Ali Ishaq (Al Rayyan), Ilja Ivovic (El Jaish), Renen Rebeiro (Al Arabi), Nader Abubaker (Police)
Middle players: Kennedy Chigbo (Police), Ibrahim Mohamad (Al Arabi), Ahmed Bassam (Al Arabi), Bairama Faye (Al Rayyan), Belal Abunabout (Al Rayyan)
As has been in the previous Olympic years, the 2016 World League will be a shortened version to accommodate teams taking part in the Rio Games. The Inter-Continental Round will adopt the same format as the World Grand Prix Inter-Continental Round in 2016 with three different venues hosting matches over each of the three weeks of play.
Group 1
Group 1 returns to 12 teams, including the eight that took part in 2015 (Australia, Brazil, Iran, Italy, Poland, Russia, Serbia and USA) plus 2015 Group 2 winners France and wildcards Argentina, Belgium and Bulgaria.
In the Inter-Continental Round, teams will play in pools of four teams each over three weekends, before the top five of a combined ranking plus the hosts meet for the Final Six from July 13-17. The six teams in the finals will be split into two pools of three and each play two matches. The top two teams in each pool will progress to the semi-finals and finals.
Group 2
Group 2 will also feature 12 teams – those ranked 13th to 24th in the 2015 edition. The eight teams competing in Group 2 in 2015 (Cuba, Canada, Japan, Korea, Czech Republic, Portugal, Finland, Netherlands) have been joined by wildcards China, Turkey, Slovakia and 2015 Group 3 winners Egypt.
Similarly to Group 1, the Inter-Continental Round for Group 2 will be played in four-team pools over three weekends. The Final Four from July 9-10, will be held amongst the top three of the Inter-Continetal Round standings plus hosts Portugal.
Group 3
Group 3, also with 12 teams (Chinese Taipei, Germany, Slovenia and Qatar joining Greece, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Montenegro, Puerto Rico, Spain, Tunisia, and Venezuela), will be played over two weekends in four-team pools, with the top 3 of the combined standings joining the hosts for a Final Four from July 1-3.
* Written by: Raajiv Tripathi – Qatar Tribune