MUSCAT: After a long absence, Oman futsal team will return to action as they began a short domestic camp on Wednesday ahead of taking part in the friendly international futsal tournament in Thailand. The internal preparatory gathering will be for four days and on August 28 the team will head off to Bangkok city. The international friendly event will feature participation of hosts Thailand, Chile, Thailand futsal league stars besides the Sultanate team.
The national experienced head coach of the futsal team, Younis al Fahdi, announced the probables for the upcoming internal camp and the friendly tournament. The list featured the following players: Hisham al Wahaibi, Abdulaziz al Raqadi, Waleed al Farsi, Essa al Balushi, Muhannad al Shibli, Omar al Hasani, Loai al Wahaibi, Muatsaem al Shamsi, Zamel al Balushi, Khalfan al Mawali, Samer al Balushi, Mansoor al Hadi, Mohammed al Lawati and Mukhaled al Raqadi.
The Sultanate team is gearing up to participate in the forthcoming edition of the GCC Futsal Championship which is scheduled to take place in Saudi Arabia during November. Also, Red Futsal team will join the qualification of AFC Asian Futsal Championship in Kuwait in 2022. The qualifications will take place in April 2022.
On the other hand, Thailand are making their final preparations as they will play at the 2021 Fifa Futsal World Cup in Lithuania, which is scheduled to take place from September 12 to October 3. Thiland team is grouped in Group C alongside Portugal, Morocco, and Solomon Islands. The other Asian nations which will take part in the world futsal championship include Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and IR Iran.
The upcoming Thailand International futsal tournament will act as an alternative preparatory event instead of cancelled tournament in Iran which was supposed to be held during last July. The overseas camp and the international friendly tournament are vital for the team members to continue in their preparatory programme and shape the players’ readiness for the upcoming GCC and Asian assignments.
Due to impact of the Covid-19 outbreak, the Sultanate futsal team was absent from training for the last six months after the cancellation of the 2020 AFC Asian Futsal Championship in Kuwait but host country Kuwait will have all the rights to host the forthcoming edition in 2022.
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