Lekhwiya commenced their summer transfer activity by signing Iraqi national Nashat Akram from Al Wakrah on July 1.[1] They made arguably one of the biggest summer signings of all the Qatari clubs by signing Algerian international defender Madjid Bougherra from Rangers for £1.7m in August.[2] Big names who departed Lekhwiya included Jasur Hasanov and Abdeslam Ouaddou, both to Qatar SC.
Lekhwiya set up a training camp in UAE.[3] They played Al Ahli in a warm-up match, winning 1-0 courtesy of a Mohammed Razak goal in the 74th minute.[4]
They put pen-to-paper for a sponsorship deal with Masraf Al Rayyan, who will be the first and only sponsors of Lekhwiya, on May 11, 2011.[5]
They participated in the 2011 Qatari Stars Cup,[6] being seeded in group A; the more difficult of the two groups. They advancing through to the semi-finals with 4 wins and 1 loss in the group stage. They faced Al Wakrah in the semi-finals, losing 2–3, with Bakari Koné and Moumouni Dagano scoring a goal each.
Lekhwiya won the league title on March 26, 2012, after a hard-fought draw against Al Arabi, with Ali Afif scoring the third-minute goal which proved crucial.[7] This was their second successive title on Djamel Belmadi. They were crowned champions with two games yet to be played.[8] Their league record at the time was 12 wins, 6 draws, and 2 losses.
Lekhwiya were drawn in Group C in the 2012 AFC Champions League, featuring Sepahan, Al-Nasr and Al-Ahli.[9] They selected Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium as their home venue for their champions league matches, as it was the venue of the reigning champions, Al-Sadd. It is the first-ever regional competition Lekhwiya has ever participated in.
On 7 March 2012, Lekhwiya played their first match against Al-Ahli at home. They won the match 1–0 in front of a large home crowd consisting of many supporters of both clubs. Despite Moumouni Dagano missing a penalty early on, Nam Tae-Hee helped his team record a victory by scoring a late goal from midfield.[10]
On 21 March 2012, they played against Al-Nasr in Dubai. Moumouni Dagano scored the only goal in a 2–1 loss. The match was marred by controversy as Lekhwiya had 2 goals ruled offside in the late stages of the game, only to have Amara Diané score the winning goal in additional time.[11]
Squad list
Players and squad numbers last updated on 3 September 2011. Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Updated to match(es) played on 13 April 2012. Source: RSSSF Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored. (C) Champions
