QNA
President of Qatar Volleyball Association (QVA) and the West Asian Volleyball Federation Ali bin Ghanem Al Kuwari confirmed that the participation of the Qatari team in the 2022 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship, which is due to kick off Friday in Poland and Slovenia until Sept. 11, 2022, is considered a historic because it is the first time for the team to partake in such event. Qatar will start its matches by facing Japan in a Group B match.
Speaking to Qatar News Agency (QNA) on Thursday, Al Kuwari pointed out that the federation has provided the entire required means for the team and has perfectly prepared it to honorably appear in the world tournament which is different from any other participation, because it needs great experience, expressing his confidence in players of the team, including their abilities to present strong matches, especially after the good preparatory period through the preparatory camp, in which the team played friendly matches versus the teams of Slovenia, Cameroon and Bosnia in a mini-tournament held in Slovenia, in which the Egyptian team also participated, where the Qatari team benefited a lot, especially with respect to adapting to the atmosphere of the tournament.
He affirmed that the presence of the Qatari team in this tournament is considered a historic achievement as first participation, indicating that he aspires to maintain the team's presence in the forthcoming tournaments by optimizing its classification at the international level to be at the forefront of the Asian teams, pointing out that the participation of the Qatari team in this tournament comes after strong levels the team presented in more than one tournament, through winning Gulf tournament title and the success it made in winning all its matches, the team also prepared to participate in the World tournament through its presence in the Islamic Solidarity Games that was recently held in Turkey, however, no prominent elements of the team had participated in these games due to their injuries, but they are currently on high alert and readiness, including Nader Abu Bakr and Mubarak Dahi, while three players under 23-year old from the Qatari team have joined the team squad.
In his closing statements to QNA, Al Kuwari clarified that the Federation is working to prepare strong teams in the age groups to form a nucleus for the primary Qatari national team.
The Qatari team has finalized Thursday evening its preparatory training to participate in the world championship tournament by long preparatory camp in Slovenia under the supervision of coach Camilo Soto and with the participation of the players Mubarak Dahi, Mahmoud Essam, Suleiman Saeed, Renan, Nader Abu Bakr, Bilal Abu Nabout, Nikola, Abdullah Samir, Boyan, Youssef Agaf, Milosh, Ibrahim Saeed, Ahmed Jamal and Othman Abdelwahed.
The draw for the tournament resulted in the Qatari national team falling into the second group, which is set to play its matches in Ljubljana, Slovenia, alongside Brazil, Japan and Cuba teams, and will open its matches by facing its Japanese counterpart on Friday, and will play its second match next Sunday against the Cuban counterpart and concludes its matches by facing the Brazilian team on Aug. 30.
The 24 teams qualified for the finals were distributed into six groups, representing all continents, including owners of the first and second places in the 2021 Continental Championships, in addition to the 12 best-ranked teams according to the classification of the International Volleyball Federation, where the Group A included Ukraine, Serbia, Tunisia and Puerto Rico teams, while the Group C included Poland (Title holder), America, Mexico and Bulgaria teams, and the Group D included France, Slovenia, Germany and Cameron teams, the Group E included Italy, Canada, Turkey and China teams, while the Group F included the teams of Argentina, Iran (Asia champion), Netherlands and Egypt.
The Qatari Volleyball team's participation in the world championship comes for the first time in history after coming in 20th rank globally, and 3rd rank in Asia, behind Iran and Japan.