Perhaps one of the strangest things that the 2024 league and season witnessed was Al-Gharafa’s exit from the football “Mawlid” without any title, despite being the closest and strongest competitor to Al-Zaeem for the title, and also for the Qatar Cup and the most expensive cup, which everyone, especially the Al-Gharafa fans, considered a mysterious mystery for the team, and requires research and investigation to reach the reasons that led to this failure.
Al Gharafa, by all standards, last season was one of the best teams and a strong contender for the title, until the nineteenth round, when Al Gharafa was in second place with 41 points, just two points behind Al Sadd, who were in first place with 43 points. Suddenly, things turned upside down when Al Gharafa tied with Umm Salal in the twentieth round with a goal, which caused the Yellow Knight to move away from the competition in the last two rounds and drop to third place with 44 points.
Last season was the closest season for Al Gharafa to return to the podium, especially in the league championship, which has been absent from the fortress of the Panthers since winning it for the last time in the 2009 and 2010 seasons, that is, for about 14 seasons. In the new season and in the Ooredoo Stars League 2025, it is required to continue its attempts to regain the shield and please its fans.
For this reason, Al Gharafa raised the slogan of stability in the technical staff by continuing with the Portuguese coach, Pedro Martins, the best coach last season.
The slogan of stability in the list of professionals was also raised by the continued presence of Algerian Yacine Brahimi, Tunisian Ferjani Sassi, Uruguayan Fabricio Diaz, and Senegalese Seydou Sano, and it only contracted with 3 new professionals: Spaniard Joselu, who was recently crowned with his country’s national team as champion of Euro 2024, Romanian Coman, who also participated in the Euro, and Palestinian Jamal Hamad.
At the level of Qatari professionals, Al Gharafa renewed the contracts of its stars, Dami Traore, Claude Amin and Hamed Ismail.
Al Gharafa achieved three of the most important deals at the level of Qatari professionals by contracting with Al Duhail stars Asim Madibo, Mohammed Muntari and Raeh Yahya, and only loaned its big star Hammam Al Amin to the ranks of Al Duhail.
The hopes and ambitions of the Panthers this season are great and grand, both locally and continentally, as they are required to regain the league shield and also compete for the most expensive championships.
He will also face a major continental challenge by playing the play-off match in the AFC Champions League qualifiers for the elite, where he will meet on August 13 with the winner of the match between Shabab Al-Ahli of the Emirates and Sepahan of Iran.
Al Gharafa’s preparations began on July 1st with internal training in Doha, and began with an external camp in Slovakia on July 16th, which will continue until August 1st, and includes playing 3 friendly matches with the Emirati team, Al-Sharjah, then Al-Ahly of Saudi Arabia and Apollon Limassol of Cyprus.
Al Gharafa will start their journey with a strong match against Al Khor, who returned to the Stars League, in the first round, then they will meet Al Ahli in the second round, and they will clash with Al Rayyan, the runner-up of last season, in the third round.
