Qatargas and Qatar Football Association officials and players pose at the launch of the third season of the Qatargas League yesterday in Doha.

By Sports Reporter/Doha

Qatargas and Qatar Football Association (QFA) jointly launched the third season of the Qatargas League yesterday at Sheraton Hotel in Doha.
In its third edition, the Qatargas League will witness the participation of a total of 18 teams in which 14 are reserve teams and 4 are second division teams. The league is set to kick off on Sunday, 20th September 2015.
The 2015/2016 season launch was attended by Mansoor al-Ansari, Secretary General of QFA, Hamad al-Kuwari, QFA’s Executive Director of Operations (Acting), Azam Abdul Aziz al-Mannai, Qatargas Public Relations Manager, members of the media, and Qatargas and QFA staff. Launching the third season of the league is a demonstration of the fruitful and successful co-operation between QFA and Qatargas, which started in 2013.
During his speech at the launch event, Hamad al-Kuwari said: “The third season of Qatargas League is an opportunity to discover the talent of some of the players in the reserve and second division teams. We would like to extend our gratitude to Qatargas for their constant support towards QFA’s tournaments and we look forward to working with them in the coming years to build on the existing strong relationship.”
He added: “This tournament plays a very important role in the ongoing development of Qatari football and overall improvement of the technical level of the participating teams.”
Al-Mannai, Qatargas Public Relations Manager, said: “The Qatargas League has now grown remarkably and contributed towards promoting and enhancing the game over the past two seasons, meeting our objectives in taking Qatar’s football to new heights, especially as the country is getting ready to host the World Cup in 2022. I thank the Qatar Football Association for providing us the opportunity to be part of the State of Qatar’s efforts to be one of the world’s leading sports destinations.
“Furthermore, we are delighted to partner with QFA to support this exciting league that brings together some of the most aspiring young footballers in Qatar.”
He noted that as the world’s premier LNG Company, Qatargas’ support to football is part of the company’ corporate social responsibility programme in the field of sports. Apart from football, Qatargas has been supporting over the past few years a number of games such as golf, badminton, chess, and ice hockey that attract many youngsters and are fast gaining popularity in Qatar.
“We are also proud to say that our CSR initiatives contribute to the human development pillar of Qatar’s National Vision 2030, which seeks to develop all its people physically and mentally to enable them to sustain a prosperous society,” he said.
The 4 second division teams for this season include Al Shamal, Al Shahania, Muaither, and Al Makrhiya, and are all going to battle it out on the field for a chance to be promoted to the Qatar Stars League (QSL).   
Last year, Al Rayyan was named Champion of the 2014/2015 season while Al Shamal won the title in the 1st edition in the 2013/2014 season.