In recent years, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has become a hotbed for hosting elite soccer events. The growth of the Saudi Pro League in Saudi Arabia, Morocco’s rise to back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations hosts and World Cup 2030 co-hosts, and the increased prominence of domestic competitions across the region, have all been accelerated in recent years.
A possible turning point for the region was the 2022 FIFA World Cup, which was hosted, for the first time, in Qatar. Though localized around the Gulf nation, the event sent ripples throughout the whole continent that would see more and more high-profile competition come to the Middle East.
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While the increased global attention fell on the international stage, the country’s top-flight domestic competition, the Qatar Stars League (QSL), however, has also continued to thrive.
First established in 1972, and rebranded under the Stars League moniker in 2019, the recent influx of investment into the country’s soccer landscape has brought icons such as Xavi and Raul Gonzales, and – more recently – Roberto Firmino, Santi Cazorla, and Aleksander Mitrovic, to the country. All this means that, despite only having a national population of 2.8 million, the Qatar Stars League is the sixth-ranked competition in the Asian Football Confederation, above larger nations such as Thailand, China, and Australia, and ranked fourth out of those in the AFC's western region, not far behind Iran in third.
With that, three QSL sides now qualify for the AFC Champions League Elite, the continent’s top international club competition, with another in the secondary AFC Champions League Two, the maximum allowed, placing it alongside the most prominent footballing nations on the continent.
Regionally, soccer in the Middle East has become a major arms race in terms of the development of each country’s domestic competition, and to aid this, the QSL has been on a sponsorship push. The current 2025-26 campaign is the first under a new title sponsorship deal with Doha Bank, which replaced IT services firm Ooredoo prior to the campaign. While domestic businesses such as TV company Alkass, e-commerce business Rafeeq, and events company We Make, dominate the league’s sponsorship outlook, the presence of global brands such as TikTok could herald a widening of the net, according to Dr Ahmed Khalil Abbassi, the QSL’s executive director for competitions & football development.
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By GlobalDataAbbassi spoke to Sportcal (GlobalData Sport) in September around the latest edition of the Qatar Stars League to discuss the competition’s development and the future of domestic soccer in the Middle East. Abbassi joined the body in 2018, having previously been the competitions coordinator for that year's FIFA World Cup in Russia, as well as the director of operations for the national teams at the Qatar Football Association governing body.
Among other insights, he revealed that the QSL does not necessarily view the Saudi Pro League, or other top-flight leagues in the region, as a rival, but rather a fellow player helping to push the rising tide of soccer in the Middle East upwards. He also spoke on the events strategy in the country, the league’s sponsorship outlook, and more.
Following the 2022 World Cup, Qatar has continued its appetite for staging events, and, in the coming years, will host the 2025 FIFA Arab Cup and the FIFA U-17 World Cup. How important is cementing the nation’s status as an events host for advancing the QSL’s domestic commercial goals?
Abbassi: “This is an important pillar now of our hospitality. Not only in football, [but] basketball, swimming, athletics, and youth football competitions. I think we have created a new football hospitality culture that provides, through football, the opportunity for everybody to come and witness our traditions, as well as the opportunity to witness competitive football in state-of-the-art facilities.”
The MENA region is such a hotbed for sports at the moment, with the likes of Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE all competing for prominence.
“You have to understand that in this region we are all brothers, so we are very happy and we inspire each other and we support each other to grow together. This is a major pillar in our strategy and in our culture.
“We're supporting them, they are supporting us. Everybody is different and is providing a different product, and I think this is a good thing for the Qatar Stars League. We strive to have an attractive, vibrant, sustainable professional league, and this is – I think – the key signature of our league.”
Looking closer, the QSL obviously has a strong relationship with title sponsor Doha Bank, and a range of other partners too. What industries do you focus on particularly when looking at partnerships?
“Up to now, we were looking more into sponsors from the region, especially and specifically within the country. But I think that in the future, there will be more and more possibilities for international sponsors to have an opportunity to be a sponsor.
“We have coaches and players from all over the world, and people follow them from their countries, and I think this opens up huge markets. But also players that have a lot of followers from the region, like a player who came from the Saudi Pro League, such as [Aleksander] Mitrovic or [Roberto] Firmino, who have different markets in their [home] countries and in Saudi Arabia because they played there.
“An important value that we bring to sponsors is that our league has a lot of talent and is now tracked by many [international fans] for the talents we have, and it provides a different product, and it's more futuristic than others may be.
“Of course, our ambitions are very high and we're not there yet, but the [broadcast] numbers have been increasing rapidly in the last three years and we're hoping to have much higher numbers in the future.”
Given the Asian Football Confederation’s growth strategy over the past number of years, with the establishment of three new international club competitions, is there a strong collaborative atmosphere across the continent among domestic leagues?
“Yes, we have a very good relationship with the AFC, and they’ve been very supportive. But we have also provided support to countries, especially in Asian and in the MENA region, that have leagues that can get inspired by our model, by some of our concepts, by some of our structures.
“This is something that is very much a pillar in our strategy to be pioneers for others and to give support to those who can, together, grow the support globally.”
Does the fact that Qatari brands such as Qatar Airways are so prominent in other soccer markets help the QSL’s own growth strategy?
“I think the brand of the league and the brands of the players that are playing here and have played here before for more than 20 years [means] we don’t necessarily need another push to be recognized. We have a brand by ourselves, which is the league, and we have stars that make up our brand internationally.”
How far along is the QSL on its long-term development timeline?
“Qatar is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, especially in the region, and, aligned with the sustainable growth of the country, the league – and football in general – is very rapidly growing towards being pioneers on and off the field.
“I think that in the last couple of years, as a country, we've played a big role in global football, hosting the FIFA World Cup, and this shows the ambitions that we have for our football. So this is the level of excellence that we always want to achieve on and off the field and in football.
“So, we're in the middle of rapidly growing [as a] league. The pace of the growth has been faster in the last three years through our new strategy since the World Cup, and the [commercial] value has been much higher than before, and therefore [the QSL is] attracting more sponsors [and] it's attracting more broadcasters.
“In the last three years, our market value has grown by over 150%. And this value is reflected in the quality on the field, but also in the professional growth of the clubs off the field. It's sustainably growing towards a much higher level.”
Looking forward to the next few years, with major events in the calendar, how do you foresee the QSL continuing on this growth strategy?
“With the increased market value of our league and the increased football level on the pitch, I believe that in the next few years the product is going to be more and more attractive for broadcasters all over the world.
“But also, [it will be more attractive] for sponsors that come along with more visibility, with more opportunity, with more attractive football, with more innovative competitions that we are thinking of outside the box [for] that are going to help grow the sport in, in the region.
“I believe that we're going to provide a product that is going to be very attractive for sponsors and broadcasters.”
