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| History |
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Riyadi Club, also known as, An-Nadi Al Riyadi was founded in 1934 by:
Hussein Sejaan, Hassan Ladki, Fouad Zantout, Youssef Shaker, Mustafa Shaker, Zouheir Yatim, Helmi Chehab, and Wafic Nsouli.
In 1934, and thanks to the continuous efforts of Mr. Hussein Sejaan, "Elm wa-Khabar # 2575" gave permission for the youngsters of "Ras Beirut" to participate in sports activities at the club's first location in "Rawshe" in what is currently "Farid el Atrash Casino".
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In 1945, the Ministry of the Interior gave permission to "Riyadi Club in Beirut - An-Nadi Al-Riyadi fi Beirut" to participate in various sports in its location in "Rawshe". Some of these sports were Basketball, Volleyball, Handball, Tennis, and Ping Pong.
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In 1947, Riyadi club moved from "Rawshe" to "Sanayeh" near "Saroulla" street. It was located beside the gas station that currently faces "Patesserie Le Roi". President Beshara el-Khoury, Prime Minister Riad el-Solh and Mr. Saeb Salam attended the opening ceremony.
The first time Riyadi played a basketball game against a foreign team was in 1947 and was against "Galata Saraye" from Turkey. The match was tight, and Riyadi lost 33-39. President Beshara el-Khoury, Prime Minister Riad el-Solh and Mr. Saeb Salam attended the game and cheered for Riyadi.
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Riyadi Club finally moved to its current location in "Rawshe" facing the "Military club in 1954.
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In 1965, Riyadi launched its first women team to compete with few other clubs that had women teams at that time like "Homentmen" and "Antranik".
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The dream of an enclosed court (Saeb Salam Arena) was realized in 1991 during the term of Club President Hisham Jaroudi and with the generous help and support of his Honorary President Mr. Tammam Salam and a number of sports and Al-Riyadi supporters from across Lebanon.
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The dream of an enclosed court (Saeb Salam Arena) was realized in 1991 during the term of Club President Hisham Jaroudi and with the generous help and support of his Honorary President Mr. Tammam Salam and a number of sports and Al-Riyadi supporters from across Lebanon.
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| Achivements |
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Riyadi Club is the only team in Lebanon to win the Lebanese Basketball Championship 20 times. Riyadi was crowned Champion of Lebanon in the seasons of: 1949/50, 1950/51, 1951/52, 1952/53, 1953/54, 1955/56, 1956/57, 1957/58, 1958/59, 1959/60, 1967/68, 1970/71, 1972/73, 1992/93, 1994/95, 1996/97, 2004/2005, 2005/2006, 2006/2007, AND 2007/2008. The Champs won the Lebanese Cup three times and that was in 2006, 2007, and 2008, keeping in mind that this tournament was not held every year. In 1998, Riyadi won the West Asian Basketball Championship that took place in Jordan. Thus the Club qualified to the Asian Basketball Championship that took place in Malaysia in the same year. Riyadi was able to win the Bronze Medal through a powerful and thrilling performance by the yellow players. Riyadi's Michael Cumberland was nominated Best Player in Asia, while the team's Captain Walid Dumyati clinched the Best Point Guard title in Asia.
Riyadi is also the only team to be crowned Champion of the Arabs for 3 years in a row. Riyadi clinched and preserved the title while competing with the best teams in the Arab worlds and was crowned Champion of the Arabs in 2005 in Dubai, in 2006 in Rabat, and in 2007 in Jaddah. Riyadi has also won Housameddine Hariri (RIP) International Tournament nine times in 1993, 1995, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007. In this recurring annual tournament, Riyadi competed against some of the strongest teams in the Arabic world.
Riyadi has also clinched Damascus International Tournament cup in 2004 after overcoming some of the best Arab teams in the region.
Riyadi was crowned Champion of Dubai International Tournament the 16th which was held in Dubai, UAE during the month of January, 2005. The Lebanese heroes scored 6 wins in 6 very tough and competitive games, and collected most of the tournament's prizes. A year later in 2006, Riyadi preserved the title by scoring a historical 45 point win over Fast Link of Jordan in the semi-final (115-70) and a 20 pt win over the Egyptian Al Jazeera (83-63) in the final. Ismail Ahmad was named MVP of the tournament, Tony Madison best scorer and best 3 pt shooter, Ali Mahmoud best point guard and Fouad Abou Chakra best coach.
On May 1st, 2005, Coached by Fouad Abou Chakra and his assistant Tygran Gyokechian, Al Riyadi was crowned Champions of Lebanon for the 2004-2005 season after 8 years of waiting. The team broke a record by winning 25 times in 25 games, to become the first team in the recent Lebanese Basketball History to win the championship without any loss! In the final game, Al Riyadi smashed Sagesse in Manara by 40 pts (112-72), and ended the series a by clean sweep of (3-0). Al Riyadi was represented by Ismail Ahmad, Tony Madison, Ali Mahmoud, Joe Vogel, Ghaleb Reda, Mohamad Ibrahim, Ali Fakhreddine, Omar Turk, Richi Halleet, Mohamad Hantas, Robert Bou Dagher, Hussein Tawbi, Abdullah Hijazi, Mazen Mneimneh, and Hasan Lakkis.
Few days after they were crowned undefeated champions of Lebanon for the season 2004-2005, Al-Riyadi team headed to Dubai, UAE and participated in Hamdan Ben Rashed Tournament which was held during the month of May 2005. Al Riyadi, once again undefeated, was crowned Champion of The Tournament after overcoming Saba from Iran (99-83). Tony Madison was nominated MVP and best scorer of the tournament, while Ismail Ahmad earned the best rebounder title.
The same dream continued its success in the 2004-2005 season, and on May 26, 2005, Al Riyadi proved to be the strongest team in the Arab world by winning the Pan Arab Tournament cup over Fast Link from Jordan (87-82), in al Nasr Stadium in Dubai, UAE. This cup is very valuable as it is the first time that Riyadi wins the Arabic championship. This tournament showed the first loss for Riyadi in more than 450 days, against the Fast Link in the second round, however, Riyadi who managed to revenge in the final, will enjoy its 66 straight wins and no losses mouth dropping record for a very long time! With that win, Riyadi would have successfully finished the 2004-2005 season by winning 6 out of 6 tournaments (Damascus tournament, Hariri tournament, Rashed Ben Maktoum tournament, Lebanese Championship, Hamdan Ben Rashed tournament, and finally the Pan Arab tournament).
The team continued its success in the 2005-2006 season and broke yet another Lebanese championship record by stretching its winning streak to 44 wins without any loss in almost 2 years; 23 months to be exact, ever since the 2003-2004 season when Riyadi lost to Blue Stars on April 7, 2004. Riyadi's winning streak in the league ended on March 7, 2006 when the team lost to Sagesse for the first time after an 8-0 record against the archrivals in the past 2 years.
In 2006, Al Riyadi preserved the Lebanese Championship title for the 2005/2006 season with minor changes in the roster highlighted by the assistance of the new import Calvin Warner who temporary replaced Captain Tony Madison in the semi-finals and finals. Al Riyadi swept off Sagesse in the final 3-0 with the first game ending with 23 pts difference, the second with 29 pts difference, and the 3rd with 22 pts difference.
Also in 2006, on April 22nd to be exact, the team and for the first time in its history won the Lebanese Cup after easily beating Sagesse (86-69) in the final which was held in the Sports City, to clinch the doublet of Lebanese Cups and strengthens its position as the strongest team on the Lebanese soil.
Finally, none of the Arab teams was strong enough to steal the Champion of the Arabs title from Riyadi in 2006 as they all collapsed one after another when they had to face the Yellow Giant in the Pan Arab Cup held in Morocco. With that achievement, Riyadi now has 2 Pan Arab Cups under its belt.
In November 2006, right before the 2006-2007 Lebanese League kicked off, the FLBB requested from the Champion of Lebanon, Al-Riyadi to participate in King Abdallah's Tournament in Jordan instead of the Lebanese National Team who at the time was not ready for such an intense competition. The FLBB thought that Riyadi players will preserve Lebanon's image and raise its name high among countries participating in the tournament including Jordan, Syria, Palestine, Kosovo, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt. Sure enough, the Lebanese heroes were up to the challenge and brought the cup back to Lebanon after beating the Egyptian National Team in the final game (70-68).
In 2007, Riyadi's dream team continued its success by preserving the cups of both the Lebanese Championship and the Lebanese Cup in a flawless season where the team did not incure any loss and was able to beat Blue Stars twice in each of the final games of the two tournaments. Ace Custis, who signed with Riyadi for the finals period, helped the team along with the second import and Captain of the team, Ismail Ahmad. However, and just fot the record, the star of the final series was Rami Akiki who replaced the injured Ali Mahmoud in the first two games and shined from behind the arc scoring 7 threes in the first game and 5 threes in the second one, and helped his team advance 2-0 in the final series against the Blues. Right before the kick off of the 2007-2008 season, Riyadi claimed Housameddine Hariri tournament the 17th in Saida by beating Al Ahli Egypt (85-80). This tournament introduced Kenny Satterfield as Riyadi's new import player for the season.
Ismail Ahmad claimed the MVP title of the tournament.
The 2008 season kicked off, and Riyadi headed to Dubai in January '08 to participate in Dubai's International Tournament. The 2008 version was quiet different this time. Some of the best teams in the region took part, such as Saba Iran (Champions of Asia), Zein Jordan (previously known as fast link), Al Jalaa from Syria, Sagesse from Lebanon, and Riyadi Lebanon (Champion of the Arabs), in addition to many other high caliber teams. Sports followers swore that this year's version was tougher than the Asian cup itself. Riyadi introduced for the first time in many years, the Lebanese Tiger Fadi Al Khatib, on their main roster. Khatib, who started his basketball career with Riyadi in his youth, joined his maternal club and assisted the team in claiming the title of Dubai International tournament after beating the strongest teams in the region one after the other, and by overcoming Zain Jordan in the final game by 2 pts (77-75). Khatib signed with Riyadi after the deadline of signing Lebanese players,
which means that he will be able to participate with the champions of Lebanon in international tournaments only and not in the Lebanese championship for the 2007-2008 season. Khatib claimed the MVP title of the tournament, Vogel was the best center, Captain Ismail Ahmad was the best rebounder, and Hasan Shaker was honored with the best administrator. Riyadi's second import player in the tournament was Scotty Thurman That was the 3rd time that Riyadi wins Dubai's tournament.
In April of 2008, Riyadi knocked Sagesse out of the Lebanese Cup championship in the semi-final game and then sweeped Champville off in the final game by 26 pts (107-81). That was the first time Riyadi and Champville meet in the final of the Lebanese Cup, and interesting enough, the last time Champville won the title, it was under Riyadi's current coach Fouad Abou Chakra. Abou Chakra won this tournament four times: once with Champville in 2004, and three times with Riyadi in 2006, 2007, and 2008. With that win, Riyadi was the undefeated holdeR of the Lebanese Cup for three years in a row.
In June 2008, Riyadi and Mouttahid met for the first time in the finals of the Lebanese Championship for the 2007-2008 season. Riyadi had qualified to the final series after overcoming Blue Stars (3-0), and Mouttahid reached it by knocking out Sagesse (3-2). Fouad Abou Chakra's men were up to the expectations in Manara in game one and scored an easy win (81-69). Mouttahid scored a suprise in game 2 in Tripoli and equlizing the secore. Game 3 in Manara was a piece of cake of the Champs, and game four in Tripoli was the night when the Champs ended the series (3-1) by beating Mouttahid (71-66) and were crowned Champions of Lebanon for the 4th time in a row, and the 20th time in the club's history... a record that no other club is even close from breaking!
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