Supporters
Historically, Al Sadd has been the favoured club of Qatar's upper-class. The club garnered many supporters in the early years of the Qatar Stars League, along with Al Rayyan and Al-Arabi, whom were the three main powers of the league. Over the years, they have attracted a wider array of fans due to their continental accomplishments, such as winning the 1988–89 AFC Champions League.
The new millennium saw an influx of new fans as a result of recruiting many foreign nationals to play for the club, as well as the club's performance in regional competitions.
In order to better communicate with the fans, Al Sadd's fan club was established in the 2003–04 season of the QSL and was then an unprecedented idea in most Gulf and Arab clubs. The fan club serves many roles; not only is it restricted to organizing fan groups within the stadium, but it is also used as a means to discuss ways in which to improve the club. In addition, Al Sadd holds annual general meetings between the management and fans in order to have an open platform to discuss issues in an open environment. Ironically, this was greatly criticized at the beginning, while now other clubs are following suit.
The club also has annual and monthly awards for the best players of the club which is sponsored by Givenchy. The fans have won the title of best fan club in Qatar for three successive year – 2006, 2007 and 2008.
Furthermore, the fan club was also the first in Qatar to put the free SMS service for mobiles in place. After one and a half years, there are more than 8000 subscribers who received a number of over 3 million SMS' during this period.
Also active on social networking sites, the club has official Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Read more about this topic: Sadd Sports Club
Famous quotes containing the word supporters:
“No Government can be long secure without a formidable Opposition. It reduces their supporters to that tractable number which can be managed by the joint influences of fruition and hope. It offers vengeance to the discontented, and distinction to the ambitious; and employs the energies of aspiring spirits, who otherwise may prove traitors in a division or assassins in a debate.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)
“The opposition is indispensable. A good statesman, like any other sensible human being, always learns more from his opponents than from his fervent supporters. For his supporters will push him to disaster unless his opponents show him where the dangers are. So if he is wise he will often pray to be delivered from his friends, because they will ruin him. But though it hurts, he ought also to pray never to be left without opponents; for they keep him on the path of reason and good sense.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“His [O.J. Simpson’s] supporters lined the freeway to cheer him on Friday and commentators talked about his tragedy. Did those people see the photographs of the crime scene and the great blackening pools of blood seeping into the sidewalk? Did battered women watch all this on television and realize more vividly than ever before that their lives were cheap and their pain inconsequential?”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)