Jordan Football Association finalises season agenda

AMMAN  — The 2016/17 football season agenda has been finalised with the season kicking off on July 29 with the Cup Winners Cup between Wihdat and Ahli.

The Jordan Football Association (JFA) brought the JFA Shield back on the calendar this season starting August 1. League holders Wihdat were drawn in Group A while runner-up Faisali head Group B with the top two from each group moving to the semis on September 5 and the winners advancing to the final on September 16.

As officials grappled with scheduling for the start of competitions with national team and upcoming Women’s U-17 World Cup agendas posing a real challenge, the most prestigious event — the Professional League — will kick off on October 22 while the Jordan Cup preliminary round will be held after the conclusion of the U-17 World Cup and will kick off
October 31.

The major obstacle was arranging stadia for four local competitions as well as not disrupting line-up readiness by delaying competitions with teams heading into a long break for the Women’s U-17 World Cup running from September 30 to October 21. Players will also be called for national team duty. With Jordan eliminated from the 2018 World Cup, the national team has a set of friendlies and camps as they prepare for the 2019 Asian Cup qualifiers starting in March 2017. 

With competitions now less than two weeks away, Wihdat and Faisali, the country’s all-time top two football clubs, as well as Ahli and Jazira are busy boosting their line-ups with the hope of competing locally and regionally.

Wihdat have contracted former national team coach Iraqi Adnan Hamad to lead the team which last year won the 64th Jordan Professional League title for the third consecutive year. Hamad has underlined his intention to compete on the Asian teams and aim for the Asian Champions League. Wihdat concluded their string of new contracts after signing Amer Theeb and veteran striker Hasan Abdul Fatah who was playing in Qatar. The team has boosted the line-up Abdullah Theeb, who led Jordan’s U-19 to the World Cup in 2007.

On the other hand , rivals Faisali regrouped under veteran coach Jamal Abu Abed who will aim to bring back the league title as well as put the team on competitive track in Asian and regional events. Abu Abed who led national U-23 in the past two years, has a vision focused on the future squad, and aims to boost the line-up with younger players. Faisali have contracted a number of top players like Shabab Urdun’s Odey Zahran, national team goalie That Ras’ Mutaz Yasin, Ramtha’s Yousef Rawashdeh, Baqa’a’s Anas Amayreh. 

Last season, Faisali beat league and Super Cup titleholders Wihdat 1-0 to clinch the 33rd Super Cup while it was Ahli who were the overall better team of the season. After years in the backstage, Ahli won the third of the season titles when they beat Shabab Urdun to win their first Jordan Cup final.

In addition to the local agenda, players will also be busy on national duty as Jordan is set to play seven friendly matches amid preparations for the 2019 Asian Cup qualifiers starting March 2017.

After putting behind elimination from 2018 World Cup qualifiers, national team coach Abdullah Abu Zam’eh, who assisted Harry Redknapp in the interim period, has recalled mainly younger players including Olympic team players and excluded stars like goalie Amer Shafie, Anas Bani Yasin, Hasan Abdul Fattah and Odey Saifi. 

This week, Jordan went up to 78th in the latest FIFA Rankings and is now 8th in Asia. Iran leads Asian teams at 39th, South Korea (48), Uzbekistan (56), Japan (57), Australia (59), Saudi Arabia (65) and the UAE (74).

The team last played at the King’s Cup, an international football tournament organised in Thailand by the Football Association, where they lost to the hosts in the final. 

Jordan will play the first friendly on August 18 against Qatar before playing Lebanon on August 31 and Bahrain on September 4. In October, Jordan is set to play Oman on the 7th and either Iran or Syria later on. In November, Jordan will play Iraq on November 6th Uzbekistan on the 10th and Lebanon on the 15th.

“We aim to have the biggest number of friendlies possible which will help team cohesion and preparedness ahead of the final phase of the qualifiers, “ Abu Zam’eh was quoted as saying on the JFA website.

The Kingdom was eliminated from the 2018 World Cup qualifiers doubling as part of the qualification for 2019 Asian Cup after a dismal 5-1 defeat to Australia. The qualifying journey ended in Round 1 after an inconsistent year that saw the national team lose 1-0 to Kyrgyzstan, 3-0 to Tajikistan and scoring an 8-0 win over Bangladesh in Leg 2.

The group winners and four best runners-up (total 12 teams) advance to the 2019 AFC Asian Cup finals and the final round of qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The next best 24 teams from the preliminary stage of the joint qualifiers will compete in a separate competition for the remaining slots (12 slots or 11 slots + one slot for the host) in the 24-team 2019 Asian Cup. 

During the past year, Jordan’s squad has had five coaches leading the vital qualifying process starting with Briton Ray Wilkins under whom the team failed to advance past the quarters of the 16th Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup in 2015 before Ahmad Abdul Qader took over in the transitional phase. Belgian Paul Put took over in July 2015 but his tenure was also suspended when he was caught in the midst of a court case over match fixing in the Belgian league. Briton Harry Redknapp led the last two qualifiers with a focus on reaching the Asian Championship and keeping World Cup qualifying chances alive.

The Kingdom had the most memorable World Cup qualifying journey in 2013, advancing to play then World’s 6th ranked Uruguay in an intercontinental qualifying tie for a place in the 2014 World Cup, losing the home game 5-0 and drawing 0-0 in the away match. Jordan had never reached that far in World Cup qualifying since taking part in the qualifiers in 1985. 

In the Asian Cup, Jordan reached the championship finals three times since 1972. The pinnacle was at the 2004 Asian Cup, when they lost to Japan in the quarter-finals and jumped to the best ever FIFA Ranking of 37th. In 2011 and 2015, Jordan again reached the quarter-finals.