JEDDAH, 9 May 2007 — The 20th Arab Basketball Championship starts tomorrow at the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal sports complex here.
There will be 16 teams competing from 15 different countries. The teams have been placed in four groups. The first group comprised Raja’a from Morocco, Maktabah from Sudan, Al-Kuwait from Kuwait, and Al- Ittihad from Syria. Al-Riyadi from Lebanon, Al-Shargah from UAE, Bufrik from Algeria, and Al Muhark from Bahrain make up the second group. Bracketed in the third group are Al-Ittihad from Saudi Arabia, Al-Sheeb from Oman, Al-Hela from Iraq, and Al Jazirah from Egypt. The teams in the fourth group Al -Ahli from Saudi Arabia, Al-Yarmouk from Yemen, Al-Quds from Palestine and Al-Arabi from Qatar. Al- Riyadi from Lebanon holds the championship title for the last two years. They appear to be the favorites this year along with strong teams from Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. This year each team can have three import players, which will add to the excitement. Shamgod who played for Jeddah’s Ittihad will be playing for the Kuwait club this year. In 2004 when he played for Ittihad, they won the title. Each team will play three games in the preliminary round with only two teams from each group advancing to the quarterfinals. The tournament will be held over a 12-day period with the finals on May 22.
May. The tournament will be aired on the A R T sports channel for fans that can’t make it to the stadium.
Ahli will play Yarmouk from Yemen tomorrow at 6 p.m. Ittihad will play Al-Jazirah from Egypt at 6 p.m. on Friday.
