Al-Rayyan Sports Club is a Qatar

Qatar

Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...

i professional sports club fielding teams in a number of sports such as football, futsal

Futsal

Futsal is a variant of association football that is played on a smaller pitch and mainly played indoors. Its name is a portmanteau of the Portuguese futebol de salão and the Spanish fútbol de salón , which can be translated as "hall football" or "indoor football"...

, basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

, volleyball

Volleyball

Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...

, handball

Team handball

Handball is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each pass a ball to throw it into the goal of the other team...

, athletics, table tennis

Table tennis

Table tennis, also known as ping-pong, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight, hollow ball back and forth using table tennis rackets. The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net...

 and swimming

Swimming (sport)

Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...

. It is based at the Ahmed bin Ali Stadium in Omm Alafai in the city of Al-Rayyan

Al-Rayyan

Al-Rayyan Sports Club is a Qatari professional sports club fielding teams in a number of sports such as football, futsal, basketball, volleyball, handball, athletics, table tennis and swimming. It is based at the Ahmed bin Ali Stadium in Omm Alafai in the city of Al-Rayyan. The club was founded...

. The club was founded in 1967 after merging the old Rayyan team with Nusoor Club. The official team colours are red and black. The team is nicknamed is 'The Lions' and also 'Al-Raheeb' which means the The fierce .

The club has won numerous titles in all sports, including two Asian championships in basketball, the Arab championship in handball, futsal domestic titles, table tennis and volleyball, as well as the GCC basketball championship. Both the basketball and handball teams have qualified for the world championships. However, the football team gets the most attention from the club officials as well as the media and the fans. The club has one of the largest fan bases in Qatar.

History

Al Rayyan Sports Club was founded in 1967 with the announcement by the Al-Rayyan Sports Committee that it would merge with Nusoor.

Al-Rayyan had success in the Qatar Stars League within the first decade of its formation, with the club participating in their first official season in 1972/73. They won the league in 1976 and 1978. Further league titles came in 1982, 1984, 1986, 1990 and 1995. During this period, Al Rayyan dominated the league along with Al-Arabi and Al-Sadd

Al-Sadd

Sadd Sports Club known as Al-Sadd Club is a Qatari sports club, best known for its football team of the Qatar National First Division, from the city of Doha. The club goes with the Nickname "Al-Zaeem", which translates to "The Boss", and was founded by four students on the October 21, 1969 in...

. They also won other trophies, such as the Qatar Crown Prince Cup

Qatar Crown Prince Cup

The Qatar Crown Prince Cup is a cup tournament in men's football. It is played by the top-4 teams of the Qatar National First Division after each season.-Previous winners:*1995 : Al Rayyan Club 1-0 Al-Arabi*1996 : Al Rayyan Club 2-0 Al-Wakra...

 (1995, 1996, 2001) and the Emir of Qatar Cup

Emir of Qatar Cup

Emir of Qatar Cup is a tournament played every season by 16 first and second division teams. The most successful is Al Sadd who won the tournament 13 times...

 (1999, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2011). The club has not experienced much league success as of late, with the last successful season being 1994/95, however they finished 2nd in the 2010/11 season.

Their success is not only limited to football. Al-Rayyan's basketball team participated in the league after the establishment of the Qatar Basketball Federation (QBF) headed by Mr. Nasser Al-Mubarak Al-Ali in 1979. They had to play in outside courts paved with cement as Al-Rayyan Sports Club, or any club for that matter, did not have air-conditioned halls at that time, meaning that the surface area would be very dangerous to play on. A report published by QBF in 1982 stated the the total number of basketball players in Al-Rayyan in 1970 was eight, with that number gradually decreasing throughout the decade, until 1974, when it was three. They were then coached by Sudanese Abdul Monem Salem. The game started to pick up in the early '80s after the formation of QBF. The playerbase increased, and South Korean coach Young-Suk was selected to bring the team glory. In the '80s, their team was one to be reckoned with, with the likes of Ahmed Mohammed Ali, the top scorer of the division in 1980-81, and Omar Mohammed, the top scorer of the youth division in the same year. Players were laid off in the mid-'80s, rendering the club ineligible to compete in the 1985-86 season. In 1988, the club had once again picked itself up again, with the juniors winning the 1988-89 and 1990-91 seasons. By 1992, the club had more than 95 players. The club continued to show good performances in the basketball league through out the new millenium.

First team

Reserve team

Notable players

Managerial history

Present and past managers of Al-Rayyan (incomplete):

Period	Manager
1990-93	René Simões Renê Simões René Rodrigues Simões is a Brazilian football head coach and former footballer.- Coaching career :Born in Rio de Janeiro, he guided Jamaica to the World Cup in France in 1998...
1995–97	Benny Johansen Benny Johansen Benny Johansen is a Danish former football player and manager. He won the Danish championship twice as a player for B 1903 and once as a manager of FC Copenhagen...
1997	Antoni Piechniczek Antoni Piechniczek Antoni Piechniczek is a retired Polish football player and a football manager. Since 2007 he is a Polish senator.- Player career :...
1997-98	Zdzislaw Podedworny
1998–99	Roald Poulsen Roald Poulsen Roald Poulsen is a Danish football manager, who most prominently won the 1989 Danish championship with Odense BK and managed the Zambia national football team....
2002-04	Jean Castaneda Jean Castaneda Jean-Luc Castaneda is a former French footballer who played goalkeeper from France. Castaneda began his professional career with AS Saint-Etienne in 1975. He also played for the France national football team...
2004-05	Jørgen E. Larsen Jørgen E. Larsen Jørgen Erik Larsen is a Danish football coach and former player.He spent most of his active career at Herfølge Boldklub, playing 197 games for the club. In 1978, he was named sports director of Herfølge BK and manager of the club in 1987. In 1993 he was named new national team coach of , and later...
2005	Luis Fernández Luis Fernández Luis Fernández is a Spanish-French footballer who played as a defender / midfielder. He retired as a player in 1993 to become a manager....
2005-06	Rabah Madjer Rabah Madjer Mustapha Rabah Madjer is a retired Algerian footballer.A skilled striker, he reached stardom as an F.C. Porto player during the 1980s, and is widely regarded as one of the best Algerian football players of all time. He is widely remembered for scoring on 77 minutes, an audacious back-heeled...
2006-07	Pierre Lechantre
2007-09	Paulo Autuori
2009	Marcos Paquetá Marcos Paquetá Marcos César Dias de Castro, better known as "Marcos Paquetá", born 27 August 1958 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is the current coach of the Libya national football team...
2009-11	Paulo Autuori
2011-present	Diego Aguirre Diego Aguirre Diego Vicente Aguirre Camblor is a Uruguayan former soccer player, known in his playing career for scoring the 1-0 goal in the 120th minute of the 1987 Copa Libertadores final. He is currently the head coach of Al-Rayyan....

Management