KUWAIT CITY Nov 8: The eagerly anticipated Super Volleyball Cup Championship is set to kick off in its ninth edition for the 2023-2024 sports season next Monday. The opening matches will see Kuwait face off against Al-Arabi, followed by Al-Qadsia taking on Kazma. These matches will be held at the Al-Ittihad Hall in the Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Complex.

The victorious teams from these encounters will secure a spot in the final match scheduled for the following Thursday, while the teams that don’t advance will compete for third and fourth place on the same day.

The Volleyball Super Cup features four competing teams, consisting of the league champions and runners-up, along with the cup champions and runners-up. For this edition, based on last season’s performance, the participating teams are Kuwait, Al-Qadsia, Kazma, and Al-Arabi. This prestigious tournament, now in its ninth edition, first took off in the 2014-2015 season. The inaugural edition was claimed by Al-Qadsia, and in the following season, Kazma emerged as the champions. Subsequently, Al-Kuwait secured the title in the next three seasons. In the 2018-2019 season, the tournament was not held, allowing Al-Kuwait to clinch the title once more. Kazma went on to dominate for three consecutive seasons from 2019-2020 until 2021-2022, with the most recent season, 2022-2023, seeing Kazma emerge as the champions once again.

In a separate development, Al-Qadsia have officially lodged a protest with the Volleyball Federation concerning the participation of Kazma player Abdul Rahman Al-Mutawa in the third- and fourth-place match against Al-Qadsia, which concluded the last Al-Ittihad Refresher Tournament,which Kazma secured a 3-0 victory.

Al-Qadsia based their protest on the fact that during the semi-final match between Kazma and Burgan in the same tournament, the player received a final disqualification, which should have rendered him ineligible to play in only two matches. Al-Qadsia contended that the player’s participation in the match between Kazma and Al-Qadsia for third and fourth place was in violation of the rules and regulations. As a result, “ Al-Qadsia are demanding that Kazma be declared the losers of the match with a score of 0-3.

By Khaled El Anzi
Al-Seyassah/Arab Times Staff