Bahrain league champions Manama Club take on Ohod of Saudi Arabia in the opening match of the 36th GCC Clubs Basketball Championship today at 3pm (Bahrain time) at Al Ahli Club in Dubai.
Runners-up Al Ahli are the other Bahraini team in the fray. A total of eight GCC teams are taking part in the event which concludes on May 21.
Manama are in Group ‘A’with Al Wasel of the UAE, Al Sadd of Qatar and Ohod of Saudi Arabia.
Defending champions and hosts Al Ahli of the UAE are in Group ‘B’ with Al Ahli of Bahrain, Al Rayyan of Qatar and Nazwa of Oman.
The teams in each group play against the other in the first round while in the second Group ‘A’ teams take on teams in Group ‘B’.
The winners of each group will take on the fourth positioned team of the other group while the second-placed team clash with the team placed third.
The winners of these games qualify for the semi-finals while the losers play for the third and fourth places.
Meanwhile, Manama players arrived on Wednesday night and had a brief training session under the supervision of Serbian coach Rajko Toroman, who is being assisted by national coach Ayman Hamzah.
Bahrain’s second team Al Ahli will be travelling today to Dubai and take on Qatar’s Al Rayyan tomorrow at 3pm (Bahrain time).
The official opening ceremony will be held after the first match today between Manama and Ohod. It will be followed by two more matches - Al Wasel of UAE vs Al Sadd of Qatar in Group ‘A’ at 5pm (Bahrain time) and hosts Al Ahli vs Nazwa of Oman at 7pm (Bahrain time).