QSL CEO Hani Ballan (left) shakes hands with Brigadier Mohamed Saad al-Kharji, Traffic Director, during the press conference yesterday.

By Sports Reporter/Doha


The Qatar Stars League (QSL) and the Traffic Department of Qatar yesterday signed a ‘key’ agreement to join hands to increase road safety awareness among young football fans in the country.
The QSL will make their stadiums and other infrastructure available to the traffic department who can use it to spread safety messages and other related information to football fans in Qatar, officials said yesterday.
This can be in the form of banners or using the stadium display screens to promote traffic awareness among the spectators.
“We are happy to sign this agreement because road safety is a big responsibility. We are here to serve our youth and our supporters and we want to make sure that when they come for matches they are happy and protected,” Hani Ballan, QSl CEO, said yesterday during the signing ceremony.
“The agreement will give them possibility to use all QSL buildings to inform people about the security on the roads. At QSL we are happy and grateful to administration for taking this step and we are glad to help people in Qatar,” he added.
Brigadier Mohamed Saad al-Kharji, Traffic Director, said he was happy with this joint initiative while insisting that the responsibility of keeping the roads in Qatar safe belonged to the people as much as the police.
“I am thankful to QSL for supporting us in this movement. The responsibility of keeping the roads of our country safe does not solely belong to the traffic department or any other organisation. We need the people to get involved too,” al-Kharji said yesterday.
“We will use the QSL events and matches to educate people about the dangers of the road. The idea is to work together to reduce the accidents on the road,” he added.
Al-Kharji said that inculcating good traffic sense was something that should be taught at the family level. “Along with QSL, we will send messages to our youth about respecting traffic rules. But we need families to teach their youngsters these messages too. Young kids look up to their parents and the teaching needs to begin there,” he said.
QSL promised all the help they can extend in this regard, including the use of social media to spread the messages to more fans. “This is an important step that our QSL is doing. We will try to help the traffic department inform the young fans about the danger of the roads and we will use social media to help them in their work. We will use the upcoming Classico to spread more awareness regarding road safety,” said Haaan al-Kuwari, Head of Events and Hospitality, QSL.
Reaching out to the youth has always been the target of the Traffic Department and QSL matches and events are a great medium to impart awareness, Lt. Colonel Mohamed Radhi al-Hajri, Director of Media and Traffic Awareness, said.
“We will try to increase the traffic awareness among the youth by using QSL events. It was our target to try to inform them. It will help them to be more aware about traffic rules. And as we have always said, the target is to see our country in good light,” al-Hajri said yesterday.