JEDDAH, 19 February 2007 — Al-Rayyan of Qatar beat Saudi Arabia’s Al-Ahli club 3-1 at the start on Saturday of the 25th Arab Volleyball Championship for clubs at the Al-Taraji Club’s Al-Zawawi stadium in Tunisia.
The championship on the Prince Faisal ibn Fahd Cup runs until Feb. 26 with 19 clubs seeing action from 11 countries namely Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, Libya, Sudan, Palestine, Iraq, Bahrain, Jordan and Tunisia.
Ahli got of to a fast start taking the first set 25-23 but Al-Rayyab leveled matters by winning the second set 25-21. With momentum on their side Al-Rayyan then went on to win the next two frames 25-24 and 25-17 to score their initial victory in the competition. Nabil Saleem of Taraji delivered the most damage for Rayyan, while the warnings to skipper Esmael Al-Khaibary and Farhan Al-Farhan unsettled the Jeddah-based Ahli squad.
The teams were divided into four groups. Ahli, Al-Rayyan, Arbil (Iraq), Al-Mareikh (Sudan) and Al-Hussain (Jordan) make up Group A. In Group B are Kathima (Kuwait), Deem Hamad (Sudan), Fanjeil (Palestine), Ahli (UAE) and Al-Najm Al-Sahili (Tunisia). Al-Nassar (UAE), Al-Seeib (Oman), Al-Ittihad (Libya) and Al-Arabi (Kuwait) comprise Group C, while Al-Tarraji (Tunisia), Al-Ahli (Libya), Al-Nassr (Bahrain), Qatar (Qatar) and Al-Sadagah (Palestine) are bracketed in Group D.
Al-Hilal failed to make the trip due to technical difficulties leaving Ahli as the only Saudi team in the fold. The Ahli team included coach Kim, assistant coach Mohammed Kanno, team manager Ayman Tazi and team supervisor Mohammed Al-Ibri. The players are Al-Khaibary, Libro Ayman Al-Ghamdi, Abdullah Sultan, Majid Al-Jihani, Abdullah Al-Bahli, Al-Farhan, Abbas Mirio, Asaad Azouz, Hussain Al-Muaidi, Ali Al-Wadyi, Yassir Hawasawi, Rami Al-Karti and Tunisian Seif.
Ahli play their second match against Al-Hussain today.
