Oman Football Association
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Founded | 1978 |
---|---|
FIFA affiliation | 1980 |
AFC affiliation | 1979 |
President | |
Sheikh Saif bin Hashil al Maskeri |
The Oman Football Association (Arabic: الاتحاد العُماني لكرة القدم) is the governing body of football in Oman. It was founded in 1978, has been a member of the Asian Football Confederation since 1979 and of FIFA since 1980. Oman Football Association is a relatively young member of the football fraternity. They were founded in 1978 and the following year, joined AFC before making the FIFA family in 1980.
Despite being a young association, their achievement at the youth level is impeccable. In the 1996 and 2000 AFC U-17 Championship, they became champions of Asia and representing Asia in the 1995 FIFA World U-17 Championship held in Ecuador, they managed a record high fourth place finish.
At the senior level, success has been far and few. However, lately they seemed to have announced their arrival at the senior events. They reached the Asian Cup, China 2004 final rounds and did well against Asian champions Japan. In the Gulf Cup, they reached the final, only to lose to Qatar in the final.
Players such as Imad Ali have been impressive and are looked at as the future of Omani football. In addition, Oman is looking to take advantage of FIFA?s assistance in the GOAL project to further develop the game in Oman.
Oman has a total of 45 clubs divided into three divisions. The First Division has 12 clubs, Second Division has 13 clubs while the Third Division has 20 clubs.
[edit] External links
- Oman Football Association at the FIFA website.
- Oman Football Association at the AFC website.