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IKOLI victor
DOHA
Al Shamal coach Silvio Diliberto wants more teams in the Second Division League in the country to make it competitive.
The Second Division League is the second tier competition in Qatari football and is contested by five teams only.
The competition was first introduced in the 1996/1997 season. Contested in a triple round-robin format; the competition winner wins automatic promotion to the QNB-Qatar Stars League, while the runner-up takes on the team that finishes eleventh in the QNB-Qatar Stars League in a play-off match.
"There are only five teams in the second division and in my opinion it is not enough. I don't know the reason for that," Diliberto said.
"We play each other three times, so a season of just 12 games is simply not enough. Twelve games is definitely not a competition in a regular football season. If we have about 20-22 games, then it is ideal for a season. They must bring in more clubs to this league. There was a structure before and maybe they need to revisit it again," the Dutch coach said.
"We have to find a solution. It's easy to say lets add three or five teams. But maybe it's not easy because of finance, sponsorship and training grounds. As a coach, we need a stronger league with more teams. We need to discuss with Qatar Football Association on way forward."
Special feeling
Dilibereto's Al Shamal will face his former club Markhiya in the second round of the Emir Cup next week.
"There's a special feeling to the game because I will play against my old club Markhiya. Like I said there is always some gap between first and second division teams. But the players have to show now that they can stand up against a QSL team. It is a nice platform for them to show themselves," Diliberto said.
Across the globe, countries use different formats in their professional league to crown their league champions. Croatia's top division, for instance, features 10 teams and they play each other three times in the season.
In previous seasons, 18 teams competed with each other with the top-flight 12 teams' reserve sides participating in the league. Perhaps the emergence of the Qatargas U-23 League is the natural reason for the reduction in the number of participating teams.
