Al-Duhail Sports Club (), formerly Lekhwiya SC, is a

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

sports club A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

, best known for its

football team A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an All-st ...

, which plays in the

Qatar Stars League The Qatar Stars League (; abbreviated as QSL), known as Ooredoo Stars League for sponsorship reasons, is the top level football league in Qatar football league system. Contested by 12 teams, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation wi ...

. The club is based in the Duhail district in the city of

Doha Doha ( ) is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor (city), Al Khor and Lusail, it is home to most of the country's population. It ...

and plays its home games at

Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium The Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium, formerly known as Duhail Stadium, is a football stadium in Doha, Qatar. History The construction of the stadium started in 2011 and was completed by February 2013. The first phase was completed in May 2012. T ...

. It is the first team in Qatari football to win the first division title on its debut season. In April 2017, it was announced that the club would take over

El Jaish SC El-Jaish Sports Club () was a Qatari multi-sports club from 2011 to 2017, based in the Al-Duhail area of Doha. The association football team played in the Qatar Stars League. The team won the Qatargas League prior to 2011, but were not eligi ...

and merge with it following the

2016–17 Qatar Stars League The 2016–17 Qatari League, also known as Qatari Stars League, is the 44th edition of top-level football championship in Qatar. The season began on 15 September 2016 and concluded on 27 April 2017. Al-Rayyan are the defending champions having ...

and be known as Al-Duhail Sports Club in a rebranding of Lekhwiya SC.

History

The club was founded as Al-Shorta Doha and in 2009 was renamed Lekhwiya. Lekhwiya Club has the biggest financial budget in Qatar. Upon the club's reformation, it was entered into the Qatari 2nd Division. It came fourth in the league on its first year before winning the next season in 2010. In the club's first season in the

, Lekhwiya finished at the top of the standings to win the

2010–11 Qatar Stars League The 2010-11 Qatar Stars League was the 38th edition of the top level football championship in Qatar and ran from September 2010 to April 2011. Teams Al-Shamal were relegated to the second-level league after finishing bottom in the 2009–10 Q ...

. It was the first league title in the club's history. They also managed to reach the final of the

2010 Sheikh Jassem Cup The 2010 Sheikh Jassim Cup was the 32nd edition of the league cup competition for football teams from Qatar. Umm-Salal were the defending champions. Round One Groups 14 clubs were drawn into 4 groups of 4 or 5 teams. The winners qualify for the ...

, losing in the final to Al-Arabi. Their official debut in a continental competition came on March 7, 2012, in the

2012 AFC Champions League The 2012 AFC Champions League was the 31st edition of the top-level Asian club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 10th under the current AFC Champions League title. Ulsan Hyundai from South Korea wo ...

. They won their first match against Al-Ahli of

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

, with

Nam Tae-Hee Nam Tae-hee (; ; born 3 July 1991 in Busan) is a South Korean professional footballer who plays for K League 1 club Jeju SK FC and the South Korea national team. He has also played in England, France, and Qatar. He is a versatile midfielder ...

scoring the only goal and also scoring the first-ever goal for Lekhwiya in any regional competition. In the 2011–12 Qatar Stars League season, Lekhwiya retained the league title with two games left to be played. They inaugurated a new stadium

, also known as Lekhwiya Sports Stadium, on February 15, 2013, in a match against

Al Khor Al Khor (; also spelled ''Al Khawr''), officially Al Khor and Al Thakhira, is a Municipalities of Qatar, municipality in northeastern Qatar. Al Khor (city), Al Khor City, the municipal seat, is located on the northeast coast of Qatar, around f ...

and won their third league title in the first season at the new stadium. in April 2017 the club announced that they would take over

and rebranded the club into Al-Duhail SC. At the end of the 2017–2018 Season the Club became the first club to hold all three domestic Titles the

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football * ''League of Legends'', a 2009 multiplayer online battle a ...

Qatar Cup The Qatar Cup (formerly known as Qatar Crown Prince Cup) is a tournament in men's football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), go ...

and Emir Cup. In 2024, it was one of the teams invited to take part in the first installment of the Equality Cup.

Stadium

Lekhwiya's stadium began construction in 2011. The first phase was completed in May 2012. The stadium was officially inaugurated on February 15, 2013, with the first match played being a

fixture against

. The official seating capacity is 10,000, it is located in the ISF area of

Colours and crest

Shirt sponsors and manufacturers

Kit history

Players

Out on loan

Personnel

Current technical staff

Records and statistics

Last update: 14 January 2025.
Players whose names are in bold are still active with the club.

Reserves and academy

;Reserves technical staff ;U21 technical staff

Administrative staff

;Board of Directors ;Management (Football)

Honours

Domestic

**Winners (8):

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, 2011–12, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2019–20,

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Qatari Second Division The Qatari Second Division (), QSD or Second Division League, also was known as Qatargas League due to sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the two-tier football league competition in Qatar. Contested by 8 teams, it operates on a system of p ...

**Winners (1): 2009–10 *

Emir of Qatar Cup Emir of Qatar Cup (), also known as the Emir Cup, but changed to Amir Cup starting in 2019, is an association football tournament played every season by all first and second division teams in Qatar. The tournament is played in a knockout system, ...

**Winners (4):

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

**Winners (4):

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

Qatari Stars Cup The Qatari Stars Cup is a Qatari football competition known as Ooredoo Cup due to sponsorship reasons. The knockout competition, which involves a round-robin structure, was first started in 2009 when the Qatar Stars League structure was amen ...

**Winners (2):

, 2024–25 * Qatar Super Cup / Shiekh Jassem Cup **Winners (2): 2015, 2016

Regional

*Qatar–UAE Super Shield **Runners-up (1): 2023–24

Al-Duhail in Asia

*Q = Qualification *GS = Group stage *R16 = Round of 16 *QF = Quarter-final *SF = Semi-final

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

Managerial history

* Khalifa Khamis (2008) ''(unofficial)'' * Abdullah Saad (2008–2009) ''(unofficial)'' * Abdullah Mubarak (2009–2010) *

Djamel Belmadi Djamel Belmadi (; born 25 March 1976) is a professional football coach and former player. He is the current head coach of Qatar Stars League side Al-Duhail. Born in France, he represented Algeria internationally between 2000 and 2004. As a pl ...

(2010–2012) *

Eric Gerets Eric Maria Gerets (; born 18 May 1954) is a Belgian association football, football manager (association football), manager and former player. As a Forward (association football), striker, he started his playing career as an amateur for his local ...

(2012–2014) *

Michael Laudrup Michael Laudrup (, born 15 June 1964) is a Danish professional Association football, football coach and former player. Renowned for his composure, passing, vision, technical skills, ball control, and dribbling ability, Laudrup is widely regarded ...

(2014–2015) *

(2015–2018) * Nabil Maâloul (2018–2019) *

Rui Faria Rui Filipe da Cunha Faria (born 14 June 1975) is a Portuguese football coach, known for his work with football manager José Mourinho for 17 years. Biography Early life Faria was born in Balugães, a tiny parish of Barcelos in Portugal. Like ...

(2019–2020) *

Walid Regragui Walid Regragui (; born 23 September 1975), sometimes known as Hoalid or Oualid Regragui, is a professional football manager and former player who played as a right-back. He is the head coach of the Morocco national team. He made history when h ...

(2020) * Hatem Almoadab (2020) *

Sabri Lamouchi Sabri Lamouchi (born 9 November 1971) is a French professional Manager (association football), football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. During his 19-year playing career, Lamouchi played for clubs in France, Italy and Qata ...

(2020–2021) * Luís Castro (2021–2022) *

Hernán Crespo Hernán Jorge Crespo (; born 5 July 1975) is an Argentine professional football coach and former player. He was most recently the head coach of UAE Pro League club Al Ain. A prolific striker, Crespo scored over 300 goals in a career spanning ...

(2022–2023) *

Christophe Galtier Christophe Galtier (; born 23 August 1966) is a French professional football manager and former player who recently was the head coach of Qatar Stars League club Al-Duhail. A defender, Galtier spent many of his 15 years as a player at Marseille ...

(2023–2025) *

(2025–present)

Other sports

Handball

References

External links

Official website
{{Qatari League Football clubs in Qatar Football clubs in Doha Association football clubs established in 2009 Multi-sport clubs in Qatar Police association football clubs