Sports

Bahrain has a large and thriving sports culture. In this nation, association football is the most widely played sport. Basketball, volleyball, and handball are some more traditionally well-liked sports. Over the past few decades, sports including rugby union, mixed martial arts, and horse racing have all seen increases in popularity.

Bahrain has legalized mixed martial arts. Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa is the patron of the Bahrain MMA Federation (BMMAF), which was established. Through Brave Combat Federation, the biggest Mixed Martial Arts promotion in the Middle East, which is owned by KHK MMA, the sport is being developed throughout the country.

The Bahraini Premier Competition is Bahrain's top domestic professional football league. It consists of 10 football clubs, each of which plays a total of 18 matches in a two-round robin format. The winners of the national championship are eligible to compete in the AFC Cup. The Bahraini Classification League, Bahrain's second-tier football league, shares a promotion and relegation structure with the league. Similar to other football leagues, the season typically begins in September and ends in May. Almost all games are played at the Bahrain National Stadium, despite the fact that there are home and away games. The team that places last is relegated, and the team that finishes second last plays in a playoff game for promotion. Riffa club is the current defending champion of the 2011–2012 football season.

11 club teams compete in Bahrain's professional basketball league. At the conclusion of the regular season, the top four clubs in the league go to the "Golden Square," where the top seeds face the fourth seeds and the second and third seeds face off in separate best-of-three series. The championship series is then a best-of-five format.