Oman team arrives in UAE for AFC Cup 2019 preparations

Muscat: Oman's national football team arrived in Abu Dhabi to take part in the preparation programs for the Asian Cup 2019, which will be held in UAE from January 5 until February 1. Earlier, the team held its final round of preparations at the at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex with the participation of all players except Ali Al Habsi. The 2019 AFC Asian Cup will be the 17th edition of the AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Asia organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It will be held in the United Arab Emirates from January 5 to February 1 2019.   For the first time, the Asian Cup final tournament will be contested by 24 teams, having been expanded from the 16-team format that was used from 2004 to 2015.^[3Under this new format, the finalists will contest a group stage consisting of six groups of four teams, followed by a knockout stage of 16 teams.