Bahrain kick off Gulf Futsal Cup preparations

TDT  | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s senior men’s national futsal team have kicked off their preparations for the Arabian Gulf Futsal Cup, which is scheduled to take place in February of next year.

The competition is set to feature five teams, including Kuwait, the UAE, Oman and hosts Saudi Arabia.

It will help the Bahrainis prepare for the upcoming qualifiers for the 2022 AFC Futsal Asian Cup, which will be held in Kuwait from September 25 to October 20, with the participation of 16 national teams from across the continent.

The qualification competition is scheduled to be held from April 1 to 15, with the draw for the event set to take place on January 6.

Bahrain will be among seven teams from West Asia in those qualifiers. The others are Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi, the UAE, Oman and Palestine.

The competing teams will be divided into two groups, with one group including four nations and the other just three.

The first and second-placed teams will qualify for the AFC Futsal Asian Cup, while the best third-placers will face one another for the right to claim the fifth berth in the continental tournament.

Kuwait has already booked their place as hosts. The nationals have begun their training locally under Brazilian head coach Lino Gomes.

As part of their programme over the next few weeks, the Bahrainis are slated to play two friendly games against Oman on January 6 and 8. Both matches will be held in the Kingdom. According to national team manager Raed Baba, Bahrain are also trying to schedule a few tune-up games against African giants Morocco and Egypt.

These are still to be confirmed. Coach Gomes has named an initial 18-player squad for the start of their preparations.

They include the Kingdom’s top talents from Hidd Club, Saar Club, Maameer Club and Mohammed Jalal team.

The national team list includes Amin Mohamed, Ebrahim Al Dosari, Sayed Fadhel Radhi, Sayed Mohamed Hameed, Ali Abdulkhaleq Alaraibi, Ali Saleh, Ahmed Abdulnabi, Ahmed Antar, Amar Mayhad, Falah Abbas, Hamed Abdulla, Hasan Marzooq, Jassam Saleh Anan, Mohamed Abdulla Ali, Mohamed Al Saeed, Mohamed Al Sandi, Salman Maula and Yousif Abdulrab. The AFC Futsal Asian Cup was previously known as the AFC Futsal Championship.

Its last edition in 2020 was set to be held in Turkmenistan, but it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Bahrainis were set to compete in the event, which would have been only their third appearance in the history of the tournament.

The Bahrainis first played in the championship in 2002 in Indonesia, and then again in 2018 in Taiwan, where they were able to make it through to the quarter-finals.