Qatar Olympic Committee Vice-President Sheikh Saud bin Ali al Thani and Olimpijski Komitet Srbije (OKS) President Bozidar Maljkovic signed a Memorandum of Understanding in this regard. Also present on the occasion was QOC Secretary-General Jassim Rashid al Buenain.
Sheikh Saud expressed his gratitude to the OKS for agreeing to contribute to the sports development in Qatar."We have long and good relations with Serbia. This is a cooperation agreement regarding development of a wide range of sports and games and we're delighted to sign it.
"We will share not only the coaching methods, we will also exchange expertise in sports science to ensure an all-round progress in various sports and games. They have a strong sports culture for a long time and we hope to learn a lot from them," added Sheikh Saud.
QOC S-G Buenain, while welcoming the Serbian delegation, said,"The strong links between Qatar and Serbia will help push the Olympic movement forward in both the nations. I hope that this agreement will be beneficial for Qatar as well as Serbia."
OKS head Maljkovic thanked the QOC for the MoU and said,"We're very happy to sign this protocol. Serbia is a big country sports wise. We know that Qatar is facing some diplomatic problems right now. We want to say that people of Serbia are always with you.
"We've strong base in many sports like basketball, football, water polo, handball, volleyball and shooting. In the past season, we won about 20 medals in various European and world championships.
"We're working with many countries under sports exchange programmes and agreements. I wish to have the agreement with Qatar for a long time," added Maljkovic.
Maljkovic also gave the example of basketball in which he has been a former professional coach."Basketball is quite popular in Serbia. We have about 30 players in the NBA. We can help Qatar a lot in this sport through coaching clinics, visits by teams and sport education seminars."
By Raajiv Tripathi
