Faisali and Wihdat contest Jordan Super Cup

AMMAN – Faisali will face all time rivals Wihdat on Friday in the Jordan Super Cup as the 2023 football season gets into full swing soon.

The event format has been changed to include two-legs with both teams meeting again Friday July 28. Faisali are a record 17-time champions while Wihdat have won the title 14 times.

Reigning Jordan Professional Football League (Pro League) champs Faisali just won their 9th Jordan Football Association (JFA) Shield title, while the league is slated to kick off on August 3.

Last season, three teams split four titles: Faisali were crowned Pro League champs, and also won the 35th JFA Shield title when they beat Ramtha, who in turn upset Faisali to win the 39th Jordan Super Cup. Wihdat defeated Aqaba for their 11th Jordan Cup final. 

The 70th edition of the Pro League saw a close-fought contest at both ends of the standings with veteran Jazira, a three-time league champ, relegated alongside Sarih, while Ahli and Jalil were promoted from the first Division. Faisali grabbed the title one point ahead of Wihdat and Hussein who tied in overall points and finished second and third respectively. They were followed by Shabab Urdun, Aqaba, Ramtha, Ma’an, Salt , Sahab, Mugheer Sarhan, Sarih and Jazira.

In 2021, Ramtha won the Pro League crown for the third time in their history after 39 years without a league title. In 2022, they finished midway through the standings while another ambitious team, Jazira, will be the notable absentee next season. Their relegation will be the fourth — 1977, 1992, 2003, 2022 after the club was a frontrunner in the past five years and played in the AFC West Asia Zone final in 2018 and 2019.

Since the league kicked off in 1944 with only Faisali, Ahli, Urdun and Homenetmen competing, Faisali are now 35-time record league champs while Wihdat were champs 17 times since they joined in 1980. Although Faisali are the all-time record holders, Wihdat’s record is quite impressive. After four years in the Pro League, they won their first title in 1980 and have gone on to win the majority of titles since then. Ahli won eight times, Ramtha and Jazira three times each , Shabab Urdun twice, Amman and Urdun clubs once each.

Arab and Asian club championships

This season, Faisali will compete in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League, alongside Wihdat who comepted in two earlier editions, as well. If Wihdat advance in the ACL, Hussein will play in the AFC instead of them.

In 2022, Wihdat were eliminated in the group stages of the ACL after they became the first of the Kingdom’s clubs to play in the round robin group stages in 2021. 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.

In the second-tier Asian club competition — the AFC Cup — no Jordanian competed due to financial and technical constraints last season. It was the first time Jordanian teams missed the competition since 2005 when Faisali won two back-to-back titles and Shabab Urdun won once.

This year, Shabab Urdun played at the preliminary round of the King Salman Clubs Cup (the 2023 Arab Club Champions Cup, where they were eliminated after going down 4-1 to Mauritania’s FC Nouadhibou and wining the second leg 1-0. Nouadhibou advanced 4-2 on aggregate but were ousted by Kuwait FC in the second qualifying round before 16 teams made it to the finals of the competition.

A total of 37 teams are participating in the 30th season of the Arab Club Champions Cup, the Arab world’s club football tournament organised by UAFA with a total of $10 million of prize money awarded.

Raja CA are the defending champions, having won their second title in the previous edition. Algeria’s CR Belouizdad, Egypt’s Zamalek, Iraq’s Shurta, Morocca’s Raja CA, Wydad AC, Qatar’s Al-Sadd, Saudi Arabi’s Hilal, Nassr and Ittihad Jeddah, Tunisa’s Esperance advanced directly to the group stage, while Kuwait SC, Libya’s Ahli Tripoli, Saudia Arabia’s Al Shabab, Tunisia’s Club Sfaxien and Union Monastirienne and UAE’s Wahda moved from the qualifying round.