UMM Salal

The club that plays in Umm Salal today grew out of a side set up in 1979 under a different name altogether: Al-Tadamun, the club of unity or co-operation, admitted to the Qatari 2nd Division. It did not last. When a group of second-tier clubs broke up, Al-Tadamun went with them, and the name sat unused until 1996, when Sheikh Abdul-Aziz bin Abdulrahman Al Thani backed a revival and reorganisation. The Olympic Committee settled the question of identity in 2004 by renaming the club after the town it belongs to.

Promotion to the Qatari Stars League followed in 2006–07 — a first in the club's history — and the years immediately after it remain the ones people return to. In 2008 the club beat Al-Gharafa on penalties to take the Emir of Qatar Cup. The following year it went further than any Qatari side had gone in the AFC Champions League, reaching the semi-finals before Pohang Steelers put an end to it. Gérard Gili was in charge for that run; the Frenchman came back twice more, in 2011 and again in 2013, which says something about how the club remembered him.

Yannick Sagbo's return of 51 goals in 95 league games belongs to that same stretch of ambition. Jawad Akeel, the Dutch midfielder, stayed longer than anyone — 141 league appearances.

Home matches are played at the Thani bin Jassim Stadium, which holds 21,175. The colours are blue and white, drawn from the Qatari flag.

The Qatari Stars Cup came in 2024. It was won by a club whose second-tier titles in 1998, 2000 and 2006 mark the slow climb back from the years when it did not exist at all.