| Maiden OFA Cup tourney to kick off on Aug. 2 |
MUSCAT The Oman club football season will get under way this August when the first-ever Oman Football Association (OFA) Cup matches kick off on August 2. The new competition, set to begin on Thursday, will see 12 top clubs from around the Sultanate battling for the OFA Cup title.
The format of the OFA Cup will see teams go into four groups of three teams each and only eight teams will make it to the quarterfinals on January 10 followed by the semifinals on January 14. The title clash will take place either on February 11 or March 9, a press release from OFA said on Tuesday.
The competition will include Fanja SC, which won the Omantel League title last year for the eighth time.
The first four games of the Group stage are scheduled for August 2, featuring Dhofar v Seeb, Arooba v Talia, Suweiq v Nadha and Fanja v Oman. The fixtures on 9 August 9 includes Seeb v Al Nasr, Talie v Sur, Nadha v Saham and Oman v Shabab. The matches on August 27 will be between Nasr v Dhofar, Sur v Arooba, Saham v Suweiq and Shabab v Fanja. Return legs in the group stage will be played on December 24, December 28 and January 3.
Hazzaa Salim Al Saadi, Chief Executive Officer of the OFA, said: “We wanted to create a competition that gave the local teams and the national team the chance to train for the big games coming up this season - to include the Omantel Elite League in September and the Fifa 2014 World Cup Brazil qualifiers in October.”
Oman coach Paul Le Guen is enthusiastic about the debut of the OFA Cup and said: “It’s the local competitions such as the OFA Cup that give we coaches the chance to scout for up and coming talent. The future of Oman football is bright and with a lot of aspiring young footballers coming up there might have a place on the national team.” To celebrate the beginning of a new Oman football season, the OFA will also be holding a number of contests for fans, offering match tickets, jerseys and incredible behind-the-scenes access to Oman teams and players.
Get rewarded for Liking the Oman National Team Facebook page, answering Oman football trivia questions on Twitter and entering the SuperFans programme on the OFA website. The full details are available on OFA’s Facebook, Twitter or official website: www.ofa.om.
Oman Tribune
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