Bahrain’s Riffa, East Riffa drawn in tough groups for AFC Cup 2022

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain champions Riffa have been drawn in a tough Group B with teams from Palestine, Oman and Kuwait for the preliminary round of the AFC Cup 2022.

The draw was held yesterday in Kuala Lumpur, and it also saw Bahraini club East Riffa drawn in Group C with sides from Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. 

This year’s AFC Cup features nearly 40 teams for the opening stage from the AFC’s West, East, Central, South and ASEAN zones.

 Riffa and East Riffa are in two of the three groups in the West zone, and only the winners from the three groups are guaranteed to advance to the Zonal Semi-finals alongside the team with the best runners-up record.

Riffa is in Group B alongside Shabab Al Khalil of Palestine, Dhofar Club of Oman and Arabi Club of Kuwait.

East Riffa is in Group C with Tishreen from Syria, Nejmeh of Lebanon and Hilal Alquds from Palestine.

Group matches for both Bahraini clubs are scheduled to kick off in May.

Bahrain’s Muharraq is the reigning champions of the club competition, and with their title gained an automatic berth for the AFC Champions League. But due to technical reasons, Muharraq will not be competing in either the AFC Champions League or the AFC Cup.

Muharraq has crowned champions of last year’s AFC Cup following a resounding 3-0 victory over FC Nasaf Qarshi of Uzbekistan.

Muharraq claimed their second AFC Cup title with the result, adding to their first triumph in 2008. They remain the only Bahraini club to have ever won the AFC Cup competition.