Hussein seek to maintain Jordan Football Pro League lead

AMMAN — Football teams will scramble to make up for lost points as the 7th Week of the Jordan Professional League kicks off on Thursday.

Last week, Wihdat stumbled in their 1-1 draw against Ramtha and will next play Sahab who beat Salt 1-0 to jump to third place.

Hussein Irbid maintained their lead as they beat Sarih 2-0 and next play Mugheer Sarhan, while Faisali remained second after beating Jazira 1-0 before they play Salt on Friday.

 Newcomers Mugheer Sarhan scored their first win since joining the Pro league as they scored the biggest upset of the week 3-2 over Shabab Urdun, while Aqaba stayed at 5th after a 0-0 draw with Ma’an.

This season’s competition promises an interesting challenge for clubs, especially after Ramtha broke the circle of champions last year and snatched the crown from traditional rivals Faisali and Wihdat. 

So far, matches that were decisive on current standings include the following: Hussein were held 1-1 with Faisali, but beat Shabab Urdun 1-0, and Ramtha 2-0; Faisali beat Ramtha 1-0, but were held 0-0- with Sahab; Shabab Urdun beat Jazira 3-2 as the latter were also held 1-1 with Ma’an and lost 3-1 to Ramtha; Wihdat beat Shabab Urdun 2-1 and Ramtha lost 1-0 to Salt.

In two of the 2022 competitions played so far, Faisali won the 35th Jordan Football Association (JFA) Shield title when they beat Ramtha in the season opening competition. Reigning league champs Ramtha upset Jordan Cup titleholders Faisali 2-0 in the 39th Jordan Super Cup. 

In the 2021 season, Ramtha won the Jordan Professional League title for the third time in their history ending a 39-year drought. Newcomers to the Pro League, relatively unknown Jalil, overcame Wihdat to win the 34th JFA Shield; Wihdat beat one-time winners Jazira in the 38th Jordan Super Cup, while Faisali beat Salt to win the Jordan Cup. 

Jordan teams have no 2022 regional presence

There will be no Jordanian representation in Asian events this season.

Just as local competitions kicked off, Wihdat were eliminated in the group stages of the continent’s leading tournament — the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League. The sole Jordanian team in the competition, who lost their Pro League title to Ramtha last season, had their league matches postponed as they played in Group E against Saudi Arabia’s Faisali, Uzbekistan’s FC Nasaf and Qatar’s Al Sadd. 

In 2021, Wihdat became the first of the Kingdom’s clubs to play in group stages of the AFC Champions League. Previously, none of the Kingdom’s clubs have ever made it past the AFC Champions League preliminary round where Faisali played in 2020 and 2018, Wihdat in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019, and Shabab Urdun in 2014.

This season, league champ Ramtha and Jordan Cup champs Faisali will not be playing the second-tier Asian club competition — the AFC Cup — after Jordanian teams did not qualify to play due to financial and technical constraints. It will be the first time Jordanian teams miss the competition since 2005.

In 2021, Jordan’s Salt played their inaugural AFC Cup and were eliminated by three-time former champs Kuwait FC in the semifinals of the West Asia Zone. Jordan’s Faisali were knocked out of the event in the first round. 

Kuwait Club and the Iraqi Air Force Club are AFC Cup record winners having been crowned champs three times each. Faisali won the AFC Cup titles in 2005 and 2006, and Shabab Urdun won in 2007. Other Jordanian teams participating in previous editions include Wihdat, Ramtha, Jazira, Hussein, That Ras and Ahli.