Doha – January 6, 2026:
Competitions in the second phase of the General Basketball League championship for the 2025–2026 sports season continue amid a highly competitive atmosphere and intense battle for the top positions and qualification. This comes through a strong round scheduled for the evening of Wednesday, January 7, 2026, hosted at the Al Rayyan Club hall.
The round kicks off with a matchup between Al Sadd and Al Wakrah at exactly 7:00 PM, in a highly significant encounter for both teams in the race to improve their standings on the league table. The evening then concludes with an anticipated clash between Al Rayyan and Al Khor at 9:00 PM, a matchup that appears uneven on paper but is full of complex calculations under the new competition system.
Matches in this round will continue the following day, with the excitement moving to the Al Gharafa Club hall, which will host two equally intense and important encounters: Al Gharafa versus Qatar SC, and Al Arabi clashing with Al Ahli in a much-awaited summit that could directly impact the shape of the leadership as the decisive stages approach.
Al Arabi Club continues to dominate the top of the standings with 22 points collected from 12 matches, delivering consistent performances that have enabled it to claim the summit. It leads by just one point over Al Rayyan, which holds second place with 21 points from 11 matches, giving it a relative advantage if it secures a win in its Round 12 match.
Al Ahli Club sits in third place with 20 points, ahead of Al Sadd in fourth with 18 points from 11 matches. Al Wakrah is fifth with 17 points from the same number of matches, tied with Al Shamal in sixth but having played 12 matches.
In the rest of the standings, Al Gharafa occupies seventh place with 15 points, followed by Qatar SC in eighth with 14 points. Al Khor is in ninth with 12 points from 11 matches, striving to escape the bottom of the table and improve its position before the end of the preliminary stage.
The current season of the General Basketball League features the implementation of a new competitive system in the decisive stages, which has clearly contributed to raising the level of excitement and keeping the chances alive for a large number of teams until the final rounds. This is reflected in the close proximity in points and technical performance.
According to the approved system, the “Play-In” stage involves teams ranked from third to sixth. The third-placed team faces the fourth in a direct matchup, with the winner advancing to the semi-finals to face the second-placed team.
In the other bracket, the fifth-placed team faces the sixth, where the loser is officially eliminated from the competition, while the winner continues by facing the loser of the third-versus-fourth matchup in a decisive game to determine the second qualifier for the semi-finals.
The semi-final and playoff stages are played in a best-of-three format, leading to the final match that will determine the champion of the General Basketball League for this season, in a conclusion expected to be at the highest levels of competitiveness and professionalism.