Al Rayyan Handball Team
| Al Rayyan Handball Team | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Al Rayyan Handball Team |
| Nickname(s) | The Lions Al-Raheeb (The Fierce) |
| Founded | 1962 (Unofficially) 1978 (Officially) |
| Arena |
Al Rayyan Indoor Arena Al-Rayyan, Qatar |
| Capacity | 2,000 |
| President |
 Sheikh Abdulla Bin Hamad Al-Thani |
| Head coach |
 Nenad Kljaić
|
| League | 1st Division |
| 2013–14 | 4th |
| Colours | |
| Club colours | |
|
Website Official site |
|
Al Rayyan Handball Team (Arabic: الريان لكرة اليد فريق) is the handball team of Al Rayyan Sports Club, a multisport club based in Omm Alafai in the city of Al-Rayyan, Qatar. It currently competes in the 1st Division of the Qatari Handball League (QHL). The team was officially founded in 1978, eleven years after the sports club was founded.
The team has previously won the contintental championship, the Asian Club League Handball Championship, on one occasion in 2012 and came runners-up in the next edition to Qatari club El Jaish.
Handball has been played in Al Rayyan Sports Club since 1962, before Al Rayyan was officially founded. In 1978, the team was officially formed, and was then overseen by Tunisian Rachid Hammami on a temporary basis for about a month, before Hassan Abou El Fadl arrived as new head coach. He coached the team for 13 years and lived in the club. Originally, starting a handball team was very difficult in Qatar, as there were no facilities specially designed for it and it was hard to persuade children to join the youth teams as it was a period where football was blooming in popularity. As a result of the lack of experienced handball players in the region, the concept of officially establishing a handball team was originally discouraged by the administrators of the club.
Over the years, Al Rayyan built a strong team, thanks to then administrator of the club, Ali bin Saeed, who also received assistance from Hassan Abou El Fadl and the team captain, Mousa Reza. Ali bin Saeed, a Kuwaiti, met a childhood friend, Matar Aman, in 1978. Matar, who was in the United Arab Emirates for 15 years, now played handball professionally and was recruited to the club along with his brothers Abdulla and Fahad.
Al Rayyan played their first league game, losing to Al Sadd 15-48 in 1978. Later that year, Al Rayyan won their first domestic title, with Abdulla scoring the winning goal against Al Sadd with 4 seconds left till it went to penalties. They went on to win the league title and their youth team won a domestic cup.
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