al-Gharafa Sports Club

al-Gharafa
	al-Gharafa
Basic data
Surname	Al Gharafa Sports Club
Seat	Doha
founding	1979 as al-Ittihad
Colours	yellow blue
president	Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani
Website	algharafa.com
First soccer team
Head coach	Caio Júnior
Venue	al-Gharafa Stadium
Places	25,000
league	Qatar Stars League
2018/19	8th place
home	Away

The al Gharafa Sports Club ( Arabic نادي الغرافة الرياضي, DMG Nādī l-Ġarāfa ar-riyāḍī ) is a football club from Doha , Qatar , which currently belongs to the highest league in the country, the Qatar Stars League . The runner-up from the previous championship season plays his home games at al-Gharafa Stadium .

Club history

The club was founded in 1979 as al-Ittihad and won three championship titles under this name. With the current naming (since 2004) the club won four more championships. Furthermore, the club won the national cup, the Emir of Qatar Cup seven times ; most recently in 2009 (also the double ).

The club took part in the continental competitions of the AFC several times and achieved its best result in the 1997/98 quarter-finals in the Asian Cup Winners' Cup .

In June 2009, the club signed Juninho . He moved from Olympique Lyon to al-Gharafa, for whom he signed a two-year contract. The Brazilian Caio Júnior was signed as the new coach in the summer of 2009 . The 37-year-old Brazilian Zé Roberto was signed for the 2011/12 season .