BAHRAIN begin their campaign tonight at 7.30pm with a tricky match against Syria in the 17th Men’s Asian Handball Championship at the Khalifa Sports City Hall in Isa Town.
UAE face China at 2pm in the first match while Saudi Arabia clash with Iran at 4pm before the opening ceremony.
Bahrain’s national manager Fernando Barbito of Spain yesterday announced the list of Bahrain players and they are Mahdi Madan, Jaafar Abdul Kader, Mohammed Habib, Hussain Al Sayyad, Mahdi Saad, Mohammed Mirza, Salah A Jaleel, Mohammed A Hussain, Bilal Basham, Sadiq Ali, Hassan Al Samahiji, Mahmod A Qader Ali, Ali Hussain, Ali Abdul Qader, Hassan Shehab Al Fardan, Ali Mirza, Ali Al Khazna, Mohammed Al Maqabi and Ahmed Al Maqabi.
The team has been training for almost six months and played 24 friendly and official games in that period.
This tournament also serves as a qualifier to the 2017 Men’s World Handball Championship to be held in France in January 2017.
Qatar, as world runners-up, have already booked their slot in the World Championship, leaving four more teams to fight for their tickets to the world clash.
Qatar, South Korea, Oman, Japan and Syria are in Group ‘A’ while Bahrain are in Group ‘B’ with Iran, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, China and Lebanon.
Bahrain’s Maamer Al Watany and Mohamed Qambar will be among the referees officiating in the tournament. The other referees are Syok Le, Bnok Koo (South Korea), Majeed Ghulahadozan , Ali Mirza (Iran), Fadel Omran, Khalid Hassan (Iraq), Hozaky Koyshi, Tomokaza (Japan), Mendaghaz and Vidaz from Lituania and Karim and Raouf Ghazmi from France.
All the teams have arrived in Bahrain with Iran, who claimed that the Bahrain Handball Association ‘neglected them’, the last to land in the Kingdom following visa approvals.
However, BHA officials hit back at the Iranian Handball Association claiming that the ‘mistakes were from their side’.
BHA president Ali Ishaqi said the Iranian officials had sent their papers after the deadline and Bahrain, though not obliged to accept it after the deadline, still worked hard on processing their visas.
He also added that Iranian officials had recently requested two extra visas.
Some of the participating teams have also completed their preparations for the tournament by playing friendly games against local teams.
The organising committee is expecting large crowds to witness the event.