Al Shamal SC

The Al-Shamal SC Stadium in Madinat ash Shamal takes its shape from the Al Zubara Fort, a nod that gives it the local name Fort Stadium alongside its official one. It opened in 2011 with room for 3,500 and has since grown to 5,000.

Al-Shamal was founded in 1980 by Mohammed bin Badr Al-Sadah, starting out on dirt pitches before the club branched into handball, volleyball, table tennis, basketball and athletics within two years. Football brought the first real success in 1985–86, when Abel Verônico's side won the Qatar Second Division and reached the Qatar Stars League for the first time. The following fifteen years produced the club's best spell: the Arab Peace Championship in 1995 and the Sheikh Jassim Cup in 1996, offset by three seasons finishing bottom of the table and a direct relegation in 2000–01 after collecting a single point.

What followed was a cycle familiar to the club's supporters — Second Division titles in 2003, 2015 and 2021 each bought a return to the top flight, each followed sooner or later by another drop. The 2025–26 season broke that pattern: a second-place finish in the Qatar Stars League sent Al-Shamal into the AFC Champions League Elite for the first time. Baghdad Bounedjah, the Algerian striker who won the Africa Cup of Nations in 2019, arrived that same season.

Al-Markhiya SC provides the club's closest rivalry, the two northern sides meeting in what Arabic media call Derby Al-Shamal. It is still known, in Arabic, as Al-Nujoom Al-Shamaliya — the North Stars.