NEWS - Qatar Olympic Committee

NEWS
IN BRIEF
Qtel has been named as
sponsor for the next AFC
Asian Cup tournament,
to be held in Qatar in 2011, and
the Asian Champions League for
2009-2012. As part of its support
for the AFC Asian Cup, Qtel will
deploy one of the most advanced
communication infrastructures
available to any sporting event in
the world, building on its experience
in supporting the Doha Asian
Games in 2006.
The fourth round of GCC
Cycling Tour took place at
the Losail International
Circuit in November. Bahrain’s
Ali Hassan Mansour claimed the
winner’s podium ahead of Aiman
Haji of Saudi Arabia. Qatar’s Tariq
Ibrahim Ismaili fi nished third in the
80 km race. In December, Bahrain
clinched the overall title ahead of the
of the UAE team.
Egypt topped the medal
table at the eighth edition
of the Arab Shooting
Championships, which took place in
November at the Losail International
shooting complex in Doha. The
ten-day championship featured 357
shooters, representing 14
Arab countries.
The two-day HH Heir
Apparent Show Jumping
Championship, organised
by the Qatar Equestrian Federation,
saw 17 riders compete for the top
prize in 2008. Sheikh Ali Bin Khalid
Al Thani clinched the fi rst place
ahead of Yousif Al Rumaihi and third
placed Muaidh Al Qahtani.
Kamal Abdulsalam,
Qatar’s star bodybuilder
convincingly won the
Qatar Golden Bodybuilding Cup,
held at the Doha Sheraton Hotel in
December. Organised by the Qatar
Weightlifting and Bodybuilding
Federation, the championship
featured bodybuilders from Qatar,
Morocco, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia,
UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Syria, Lebanon,
Poland, Malaysia and Iran.
8 QATARSPORT Q5.09
LAPTOP OPENS IN 2010
The world’s fi rst underground stadium
- dubbed ‘� e Laptop’ because of its unusual
shape - will be unveiled in Doha in mid-
2010, well in time to host matches during the
2011 AFC Asian Cup.
Commissioned by the Qatar Olympic
Committee (QOC), the Qatar Football
Association (QFA) and the Aspire Zone at
a cost of over $20m, the new stadium will
be an all-weather sports facility with unique
design and technical features.
According to Dr Athanasios Batsilas, the
QFA Technical Director, the extraordinary
new stadium will off er an ‘outstanding
experience’ for both players and spectators.
“You will not see any light towers around
this new stadium. � is is the unique part of
this wonderful project,” he said.
“� e lights will be integrated inside the
main stand of the stadium, which can house
around 10,000 to 11,000 people. We will
also have latest audio and video technology
Graphic images of ‘� e
Laptop’ Stadium
inside the stadium… and easy access to the
stadium from seven roads leading into the
underground car park.”
Although the stadium could be used to
stage matches at the 2011 Asian Cup, subject
to Asian Football Confederation (AFC)
approval, Dr Batsilas said that the stadium is
being built primarily to conform with AFC
rules for clubs. “� ere are currently seven
teams with their own stadiums in the Qatar
Stars League, but three without stadiums,”
he said. “� e AFC want teams to play
both home and away matches, and they are
supposed to have their own stadiums.
“� e Asian Cup is not our fi rst priority,
but if it’s built on time and the AFC approves
it, we’ll use it.”
Dr Batsilas rebutted suggestions that
‘� e Laptop’ could be used to promote a
prospective FIFA World Cup bid from the
QFA because World Cup rules require a
minimum of 30,000 seats per stadium.