Faisali aim to reach Group Stage

AMMAN — Faisali will play Uzbekistan’s Nasaf Qarshi on January 30 in the 2018 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League play-off match with the aim of qualifying for Group Stage of the event.

Should Faisali advance, they will play in Group 3 alongside the UAE’s Wasl, Iran’s Persepolis FC and Qatar’s Sadd. Jordanian teams have never before made it past the ACL preliminary round. Wihdat were knocked out in 2017, 2016 and 2015, while Shabab Urdun were eliminated in 2014.

In 2017, then reigning league champs Wihdat were eliminated by the UAE’s Wihda in the playoffs after eliminating India’s Bengaluru FC in the preliminary round. Wihdat were also Jordan’s representative in 2016 and were knocked out early by Saudi Arabia’s Ittihad Jeddah. In 2015, they lost to former titleholders Kuwait’s Qadissieh. In 2014, Shabab Urdun were eliminated by Bahrain’s Al Hidd.

The 2018 AFC Champions League is the 37th edition of Asia’s premier club football tournament organised by the AFC, and the 16th under the current AFC Champions League title.

Faisali hope to build on last season’s success when they combined their local league triumph and finished runner-up to Tunisia’s Tarajji in the Arab Clubs Championships.

Should Faisali be knocked out they will play in the AFC Cup — the second-tier Asian club competition. Last year, Wihdat were eliminated from the 14th AFC Cup West Asia zone semifinals. The West Asia zone champ faced the winner from the rest of the Asian zones to decide the AFC Cup champion.

The AFC Cup was previously won three times by Jordanian teams: Faisali won titles in 2005 and 2006, and Shabab Urdun won in 2007.