Handball national side
Qatar
National team · Qatar
«Al-Anabi»
Al-Anabi walk into most Asian tournaments as the team to beat rather than the team hoping to catch up, and the results back that reputation: eight Asian Championship titles since 2002, the last of them in 2024, with Bahrain waiting in the final more often than any other side, including in 2026, when Qatar finished runners-up. That rivalry has spilled into the Arab Championship too, which Qatar won in 2025.
The Qatar Handball Association was set up in 1978 and joined the International Handball Federation the same year, though the national team took until 1983 to make its first Asian Championship appearance, finishing sixth. Growth from there was slow before it turned sharp: golds at the Asian Games in 2014, 2018 and 2022 came alongside a run of six straight continental titles built under the Spanish coach Valero Rivera López, who took charge in 2013 and stayed a decade before Veselin Vujović succeeded him in 2024.
The high point of that spell came in 2015, when Qatar hosted the World Championship and reached the final, losing 25-22 to France but becoming the first Asian side ever to get that far. The squad that did it leaned heavily on naturalised goalkeepers such as Danijel Šarić, Žarko Marković and Goran Stojanović, a reliance that drew accusations at the time that Al-Anabi were less a national team than a "world selection" assembled for the occasion — reports at the time counted only four of the seventeen players as Qatari-born.
The side takes its nickname, Al-Anabi, from the maroon of its kit, the same shade worn by the national football team. Home games are played at the Duhail Sports Hall in Doha, a 5,580-seat venue that opened in 2014 and doubles as the association's headquarters.
Latest results
Fixtures and results| 29 Sep | Asian Games |
Bahrain
A
|
32:33 | L |
| 28 Sep | Asian Games |
South Korea
H
|
32:30 | W |
| 26 Sep | Asian Games |
Iran
H
|
31:25 | W |
| 25 Sep | Asian Games |
Japan
H
|
37:28 | W |
| 21 Sep | Asian Games |
China
A
|
30:25 | W |
| 20 Sep | Asian Games |
Hong Kong
A
|
40:17 | W |
Standing
Asian GamesGroup stage · Group A
| # | Team | M | W | D | L | Goals | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
 Qatar
|
3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0:70 | 6 |
| 2 |
Japan
|
3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0:81 | 4 |
| 3 |
China
|
3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0:87 | 2 |
| 4 |
Hong Kong
|
3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0:122 | 0 |
Team statistics
matches counted in total: 58| Metric | Total | Home | Away |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matches | 58 | 34 | 24 |
| Scored | 1736 | 995 | 741 |
| Conceded | 1536 | 922 | 614 |
| Scored per game | 29.9 | 29.3 | 30.9 |
| Conceded per game | 26.5 | 27.1 | 25.6 |
| Difference | +200 | +73 | +127 |
Fixtures of Qatar
Honours of Qatar
- Asian Men's Handball Championship 2002, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2024 8
- Asian Games 2014, 2018, 2022 3
- Arab Men's Handball Championship 2025 1
- Asian Men's Handball Championship 2004, 2006, 2026 3
- Asian Games 2006 1
- IHF World Men's Handball Championship 2015 1
- Asian Men's Handball Championship 2004, 2006 2
- Asian Games 2002 1