FOOTBALL – Bahrain's under-23 team are gearing up to compete in the 2025 West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) U23 Championship.
The sixth edition of the competition is scheduled to take place from March 19 to 25 in Muscat, Oman.
It will feature eight teams from across the region, including hosts Oman, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, and Bahrain.
The tournament’s unique format will see the participating squads taking to the pitch on three match days.
A draw was held to pair the squads up for the opening stage, which will be on the first day of play. Oman will take on Saudi Arabia in Group A, Bahrain will face the UAE in Group B, Syria will take on Lebanon in Group C, and Jordan will lock horns with Kuwait in Group D.
The winners of Bahrain’s match-up with their Emirati counterparts will move on to face the victors of the Oman-Saudi clash in a semi-final encounter on March 22. The other game in the final four will pit the winners of the Jordan-Kuwait game against the victors of the Syria-Lebanon affair.
The losers of each game will face off in classification contests.
The concluding day of the tournament will then be headlined by the final between the two winners from the semis, while the losers will lock horns for the right to claim the bronze medals. Ranking contests will also be held to place the teams from fifth through eighth.
Bahrain’s Olympic team have kicked off their preparations for the tournament with local training gatherings supervised by head coach Hicham Dimai from Morocco.
Thirty-one players have been called up for the initial training squad. They are Ali Hussain, Mohammed Al Sayegh, Sayed Ahmed Majeed, Mohammed Arhama, Ali Alkhabbaz, Abdulla Freah, Ramzi Khudair, Rashid Majeran, Mahmood Hujair, Ali Tarada, Ali Sahwan, Ahmed Jaafar, Mohammed Al Jishi, Abdulla Al Subaie, Ali Younes, Salman Younis, Faisal Farhan, Abdulaziz Jamal, Ali Al Dosari, Elias Al Samaheeji, Abbas Al Muharraqi, Sayed Hussain Hadi, Jamal Al Tiri, Jassim Mohammed, Moayad Al Desouki, Jawad Ali, Ali Al Bannai, Abdulla Burashid, Mohammed Ahmed, Ahmed Farhan, and Mohammed Marhoon.
Aside from competing in the WAFF championship, Bahrain’s under-23 nationals are also gearing up to play in the qualifiers of the AFC U23 Asian Cup 2026. This is scheduled for September later this year, to determine the teams that will compete in next year’s tournament proper, set to be held in Saudi Arabia.
The upcoming WAFF event is part of the federation’s calendar for 2025. Its fifth edition took place last year in the Saudi city of Al Ahsa, with the participation of the under-23 squads of Saudi, Jordan, Iraq, and the UAE, along with South Korea, Thailand, Australia, and Egypt as guests following a special invitation from the WAFF. The South Koreans won the tournament.
The fourth edition was held in Iraq in 2023 with the hosts taking the crown, while the third event was in 2022, with hosts Saudi taking the title.
The second edition was held in 2021 with Jordan winning the champions’ trophy, while the inaugural edition took place in 2015 in Qatar, in which Iran won the title.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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