A file photo of players in action.

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 8: The 58th edition of the Handball League kicks off today, featuring two matches in the first round. Fahaheel will open the tournament against Al-Sahel at 5:00 pm, followed by Khaitan facing Al-Tadamon at 6:30 pm, all taking place at the Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Complex Hall.

The first week of matches will conclude tomorrow, Thursday, with Al-Yarmouk going up against Kazma and Al-Arabi playing against Burgan. The first round wraps up on Friday with three matches: Al-Sulaibikhat vs. Al-Salmiya, Al-Nasr vs. Al-Qadisiya, and Kuwait vs. Al-Qurain.

This year's league will feature 14 clubs, excluding Al-Jahra and Al-Shabab. The Competitions Committee has announced that the general league "merger" will run until March 28, 2025, starting with a single-division preliminary round. The top six teams will qualify for the Premier League, competing for the title while retaining their points from the merger. The Premier League will adopt a "three divisions" system, where the team with the most points at the end is crowned champion.

Conversely, teams ranked from seventh place downward in the "merger" will compete in the First Division League, which will consist of two divisions playing a "home and away" format, also retaining their points. Each club is permitted to include two foreign players in their roster, with the option to replace a foreign player due to injury at any point during the season. Additionally, five youth team players may participate alongside the first team.

Secretary of the Handball Federation Qaed Al-Adwani emphasized that this year, Kuwaiti sports fans can look forward to a highly competitive league marked by enhanced technical quality and team contracts. He noted that the clubs have secured high-level professionals, raising the overall standard of the league, making it difficult to predict the leading competitor until the tournament's latter stages.

The handball league championship commenced in the 1966-1967 season, with eight out of 16 teams having won the title. Kuwait Club holds the record for the most league titles, having won 14 times, including during the 70-71 and 74-75 seasons, and the last 12 seasons. Al-Salmiya follows with 11 titles, while Al-Arabi has won 10. Kazma has claimed the title six times, and both Al-Qadsiya and Al-Sulaibikhat have five titles each. Al-Fahaheel has four championships, while Khaitan has won twice.

The 58th edition of the Handball League features seven national coaches in the first round, a significant increase compared to previous seasons, showcasing the growth in the local coaching level and the clubs' confidence in them. The coaches are: Haitham Al-Rashidi (Kuwait Club), Yaqoub Al-Moussawi (Al-Salmiya), Ahmed Foulad (Al-Arabi), Hussein Habib (Burgan), Walid Fayrouz (Al-Sulaibikhat), Osama Al-Failakawi (Al-Yarmouk), and Abdulrahman Nashmi (Al-Fahaheel).

In addition, there is one Croatian coach, Slavko (Al-Qadsiya), two Serbian coaches, Bozo (Kazma) and Zekia (Al-Qurain), a Bosnian coach, Dever (Al-Nasr), two Egyptian coaches, Sameh Abdel-Razzaq (Al-Sahel) and Ayman Al-Alfi (Al-Tadamon), and a Tunisian coach, Moez Ben Mahfouz (Khaitan).

The foreign professionals include Qatari Frankis Marzo, Orange Angel Hernandez (Kuwait Club), Tunisian duo Anwar Ben Abdullah and Mohammed Farad (Kazma), Montenegrin Vladan Lipovina, Egyptian Abdullah Farouk (Qadsiya), Tunisian Mohammed Al-Soussi, German Valentin Spohn (Salmiya), Tunisian Osama Al-Jaziri, Croatian Luka Stepancic (Al-Arabi), Japanese Yasuhira, Croatian Stipe Mandalinic (Burgan), Estonian duo Karl Tom and Denir Janima (Al-Sulaibikhat), Egyptian Mahmoud Noman, Algerian Al-Hajj Sadok (Al-Nasr), Austrian Boris Zikovic, Montenegrin Vasili Kalogerovic (Al-Qurain), and Iranian Afshi Sadeghi (Fahaheel), who has not yet arrived. Al-Tadamon and Al-Yarmouk have yet to sign any foreign professionals.

Kuwait  Club handball coach Haitham Al-Rashidi stated that his team's players are fully prepared for the championship, highlighting their training camp in Croatia aimed at enhancing their performance for continued championship success. Burgan coach Hussein Al-Habib noted that this year's league will be highly competitive due to the notable improvement in the participating teams, adding that the match schedule aligns well with the team's technical staff's vision for competitiveness.

By Khaled Al-Enezi

Al-Seyassah/Arab Times Staff