Bahrain Olympic team leave for Thailand camp

TDT | Manama                             

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s under-23 Olympic football team departed yesterday for Thailand to conduct an overseas training camp. The Bahrainis travelled with a 28-player squad, coached by Dario Basic of Croatia.

They will be at their camp to step up their preparations for their upcoming qualifiers for the 2024 AFC U23 Asian Cup. It will continue until 16 August.

The Kingdom’s young talents include Mustafa Al Salem, Omar Saber, Hussein Harouneh, Hussein Abdulkarim, Abdulla Freih, Ahmed Dia, Abdulla Al Subaie, Abdulrahman Al Obaidly, Adel Al Rumaihi, Saleh Al Zubaidi, Mubarak Mohammed, Abdulla Al Khalasi, Salman Abdulla, Mohammed Abdul Qayyum, Ahmed Kamel, Khalifa Al Lafi, Salman Adel, Khalil Ebrahim, Ahmed Musalam, Hassan Issa, Ali Mohammed Redha, Ahmed Abdulhameed, Hussein Al Aker, Hassan Abdulnabi, Yasseen Karim, Salem Al Dosari, Salem Hussein and Sayed Jawad Haider.

The under-23s will be playing a number of friendlies during this period.

Qualifiers

The qualification campaign is scheduled to take place from 4 to 12 September, and Bahrain’s group will be hosted in the Kingdom.

The Bahrainis have been drawn in Group D along with Japan, Palestine and Pakistan. There are 11 groups in all, with 10 comprising four nations and one featuring three. Each group will host their matches at a centralised venue.

Following a single round-robin, the 11 group winners and four best second-placed teams qualify for the AFC U-23 Asian Cup. They join tournament hosts Qatar, who have received automatic qualification, to form the final cast of 16 in the competition, to be played between April 15 and May 3, 2024.

Group A of the qualifiers will have group hosts Jordan take on Syria, Oman and Brunei. Group B will see 2020 champions and group hosts South Korea, Myanmar, Kyrgyz Republic and Qatar contesting; while Group C will see group hosts Vietnam, Singapore, Yemen, and Guam.

Qatar’s qualifiers will be considered as friendlies. In Group E are 2018 champions and group hosts Uzbekistan, Iran, Hong Kong and Afghanistan; while in Group F are 2013 winners Iraq, hosts Kuwait, Timor-Leste and Macau.

In Group G are the UAE, India, Maldives and group hosts China; while Group H features group hosts Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh and the Philippines. Group I will see Australia, group hosts Tajikistan, Laos and North Korea; Group J consists of defending champions and hosts Saudi Arabia, Cambodia, Lebanon and Mongolia; and finally Group K comprises just three teams with Turkmenistan, group hosts Indonesia and Chinese Taipei.

Bahrain have qualified just once in the previous five editions of the AFC U-23 Asian Cup. That was in the 2020 event held in Thailand, when they did not make it past the group stage.