Football is just not a sport; it is a passion, a culture and a lifestyle. Like many other expatriate communities either they are Asian or European or hail from any other part of the world, love for football runs deep in the blood of Lebanese community.
They watch football matches enthusiastically, they play the game, they win matches in local tournaments and they are also organizing football training for their children.
The adult football team of Lebanese expatriate community will clash with its Palestinian counterpart in Al Markhiya Sports Club on Friday (November 30).
“The match will be held under ongoing Asian Community Football Tournament (ACFT) 2018-19,” Ali Koteish (Pictured), Lebanese Sport Community Leader told The Peninsula.
He said that ACFT is an initiative launched by Qatar Football Association (QFA) in collaboration with Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC) to promote football among expatriate communities in Qatar.
“I formed Lebanese community football team nine years ago in Qatar. I am also the founder of Lebanese basketball team in Qatar,” said Koteish.
He said that Lebanese football team made a lot of achievements in term of wining matches. “We became champion of the biggest communities tournament - ACFT - after defeating Indian team in the final match last year,” said Koteish.
He said that so far Lebanese football team participated in past five seasons of ACFT; this year is the 6th one.“I also opened this year Lebanese community academy for football in Qatar for children of various age group from 4 to 15 years,” said Koteish.
He said that the newly opened academy ‘Cedars Sport Academy ’ is running at Doha Rugby Club near Doha College. “So far, a total of 50 children are enrolled in the academy. The academy offers football training course two days in a week. There are three coaches certified by FIFA with A, C and D grades,” said Koteish.
He said that the children are divided into three groups according to their age. The academy has initiated to make agreements with various sport clubs across the country to accommodate growing number of children.
Speaking about the response of Lebanese community to the sport activities, Koteish said: “Over 2,000 Lebanese expatriates came to watch the final match of ACFT last year which is a great number for such community.”
He added that the cedars academy received overwhelming response from the community as there are many applications. “Therefore we are making agreements with other sport clubs to accommodate maximum number of candidates,” said Koteish.
He said that the purpose of academy is not only to offer sport training to the children of Lebanese community in Qatar but also to provide a platform so they could enjoy a complete social life by making friendship with the children of same culture and country.
Apart from the sport activity which is the main purpose of the academy, a lot of other activities are being carried out like taking trips to other sport clubs and picnic places to keep the academy attractive for the children.
