KUWAIT CITY, Nov 12: KUWAIT CITY, Nov 12: Today marks the commencement of the highly anticipated “Super” Volleyball Cup tournament, now in its ninth edition for the 2023-2024 sports season. The action kicks off with an exciting match between Kuwait and Al-Arabi, followed by a clash between Al-Qadsia and Kazma at the Al-Ittihad Hall in the Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Complex. The winners from these matches will advance to the final showdown scheduled for next Thursday, while the losing teams will compete for third and fourth places on the same day.

Following the tournament system, four teams vie for supremacy in the Volleyball Super Cup, comprising the league champions and runners-up, as well as the Cup champions and runners-up. The current edition features Kuwait, Al-Qadsia, Kazma, and Al-Arabi based on their performance in the previous season.
Having seen eight successful iterations since its inception in the 2014-2015 season, Al-Qadsia secured the inaugural title, followed by Kazma in the 2015-2016 season. The subsequent three titles went to “Al-Kuwait,” with a break in the 2018-2019 season when “Al-Abyad” emerged victorious. Kazma then claimed three more titles from the 2019-2020 season until the last season in 2022-2023.

Preparations for the tournament were bolstered through participation in the Al-Ittihad “refresher” tournament, recently concluded with Kuwait clinching the title, followed by Burgan in second place, Al-Qadsia in third, Kazma in fourth, and Al-Arabi in fifth.
Al-Kuwait are led by Turkish coach Taner Atik, along with Iranian professional Saber Kazemi and Chinese player Lipin Liu. Meanwhile, the “yellow” team, Al-Arabi, are coached by Argentine Julian Alvarez, supported by Venezuelan professional Wilner Rivas and Brazilian Degalma Moreira. The “orange” squad, Al-Qadsia, is under the guidance of coach Jawad Shamami, with Russian professional Artem Sushko and German player Igor. Lastly, the Tunisian “green” team are coached by Niaz Salam, with Dominican professional Santos Alves and Tunisian Mohamed El-Arabi contributing to their lineup.