Local agenda kicks off as busy schedules await football teams

AMMAN — As the summer agenda nearly winds down, the Kingdom’s football teams are finalising their line-ups as they get ready for local and regional football agendas. 

This weekend, league champs Wihdat play Jordan Cup holders Faisali kicking off the 2015/16 football season with the 33rd Super Cup. 

The Jordan Football Association has, meanwhile, held the draw for the Jordan Cup and Jordan Professional League (JPL). The Jordan Cup will see First Division teams play the Preliminary round starting September 4, following which the top four teams will join the 12 JPL teams in the knockout Round of 16 starting September 25.

The JPL is set to kick off on September 12. Last year Wihdat won their 14th League title, as well as the 32nd Super Cup, and have signed former star Abdullah Theeb hoping to retain local titles and compete on the Asian scene with Syrian coach Imad Khankan leading the team. 

For the first time in years, last season Jazira and Ramtha were runner-up and third respectively, while Faisali finished at a disappointing 7th place in the League, but later managed to beat That Ras to win the 35th Jordan Cup title. 

Last season also witnessed a big battle at the other end of the standings as Ittihad Ramtha were relegated to Division 1 after failing to score a single win, and former champs Shabab Urdun and Faisali could have easily followed suit. It was only in the final week that Baqaa also held on to their post and Manshieh were relegated.

The League’s top two teams will also represent Jordan in regional events such as the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup and Asian Champions League. Last season, Wihdat and Jazira’s impressive run at AFC Cup came to an end in the Round of 16. 

Local competitions are being carefully planned with availability of local stadia proving to be an obstacle as Jordan readies to host the U-17 Women’s World Cup in 2016. The national team also has Group B qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup in Russia doubling as part of the qualification for 2019 Asian Cup as well. The Kingdom beat Tajikistan 3-1 in its opening match and will play Kyrgyzstan on September 3.

The women’s team topped Asian Group B qualifiers and moved to Round 2 — the second phase of the qualifying journey to the 2016 Summer Olympics football tournament. Jordan’s U-16 boys team finished last at the West Asian Championship and are now readying to play Group B qualifiers of the 2016 AFC U-16 Asian Championship where Jordan will join Nepal, Oman and Kyrgyzstan from September 12-20 in Kyrgyzstan. 

The U-19 team is gearing up for AFC U-19 qualifiers kicking off October 2 and the U-23 are slated to play the first West Asian Championship kicking off on September 29.