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Football agenda rescheduled

By Aline Bannayan - Feb 25,2015 - Last updated at Feb 25,2015

AMMAN — The Jordan Professional League teams will play the upcoming Week 15 of the 63rd edition starting Thursday before heading into a long recess that has come under much scrutiny from most clubs.

Week 15 was postponed last week when the blizzard brought life to a standstill and a public holiday was announced. The competitions committee at the Jordan Football Association (JFA) announced on Wednesday giving the League a month long break to resume on April 2 in order to allow the U-23 team to prepare for Olympic qualifiers in March as well as the regrouping of the national team for two friendlies against Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. 

Similarly, the JFA last week announced extending the contract of national team coach Ray Wilkins and his staff for one month despite Jordan’s elimination from the Asian Cup where the Kingdom failed to repeat its quarter-final qualification in 2004 and 2011. It was later reported that the JFA would seek a new head coach and Ahmad Abdul Qader would lead the team in the interim.

Team coaches and officials have noted the League’s long break would adversely affect team, players’ preparedness and add more pressure to their strained budgets.

Wihdat now lead by three points and will play Hussein on Thursday. Wihdat disappointed fans after their 1-0 defeat to Ahli and 0-0 draw with bottom-placed Ittihad Ramtha, but kept their lead thanks to Ramtha, who lost 2-1 to Ahli, who jumped up to fifth.

Ramtha will next play Ittihad Ramtha, while third-placed Jazira, who beat Hussein 2-1, next play Manshieh.

Baqaa went up to 9th after a 3-0 win over former champs Shabab Urdun, who are now 11th and next play Faisali, who held Manshieh 0-0 and remained eighth. Former Jordan Cup champs That Ras are fourth after they beat Sarih 1-0. They will next play Baqaa while Sarih play Ahli.

Faisali have declined to play regional competitions this year as the former record-breaking League champ suffer an administrative crisis that has left the team trailing at the lower end of the standings for the first time since the League kicked off in 1944. Shabab Urdun also disappointed fans trailing down in the standings, while Baqaa, a usual top five finisher, is now 9th after only three wins.

The Jordan Cup semis will now be played after the League ends on May 17. The Jordan Cup semis will see Faisali play Wihdat and Ramtha face That Ras. Wihdat won the first major competition of the 2014/15 football season after they beat Baqaa 2-0 in the 32nd Super Cup.

Last season, Wihdat won the Jordan Professional League for the 13th time, and beat Baqaa to win the Jordan Cup while Shabab Urdun beat That Ras to win the 31st Super Cup. The JFA Shield was not held.

Standings after Week 14 

(Last week’s rank in parenthesis)

Team

P

W

D

L

GF

GA

PTS

Wihdat (1)

14

9

4

1

20

6

31

Ramtha (2)

14

7

4

2

21

9

28

Jazira (3) 

14

7

4

3

17

12

25

That Ras (4)

14

6

5

3

13

9

23

Ahli (7)

14

6

3

5

15

15

21

Hussein (5)

14

5

5

4

16

15

20

Sarih (6) 

14

6

2

6

15

15

20

Faisali (8)

14

4

6

4

8

8

18

Baqaa (10)

14

3

5

6

13

19

14

Manshieh (11)

14

2

5

7

12

20

11

Sh. Urdun (9)

14

2

5

7

7

15

11

Itt. Ramtha (12)

14

o

4

10

11

25

4

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