Al Oruba unhappy with short prep time before league restart

MUSCAT, Sept 12 - Al Oruba club on Saturday announced a clarification on Oman Football Association’s decision (OFA) on restarting the footballing season of 2019/2020. The Sur-based team began their announcement with a thanking note to the Supreme Committee tasked with tackling Covid-19 pandemic as they approved a resumption of the footballing activities after a break of more than six months. “Al Oruba club will take the required steps that will ensure safe return of the activities in the club taking into consideration the precautionary measures of all the club’s members which is the top priority. The decision which was raised by the Supreme Committee in mid of March on stopping the sports activities aimed to ensure the safety of the players from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Al Oruba club was unhappy with the OFA decision to resume the remaining three rounds of the league at this tough time of the pandemic after an absence of six months,” said the statement. The official statement of Omantel League’s club mentioned that the current time did not allow for league resumption due to different reasons including the health, technical and financial reasons. “It is too difficult to complete all the process and required procedures during the four and five weeks time until resuming with the three remaining rounds of the league. The technical preparation for the team to the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 seasons required a proper and series of warm-up sessions besides the friendly matches after a break for half year. Moreover, the team have many foreign players and they need to arrive in the Sultanate and need to adapt to the technical readiness.” The announcement ended by stating that Al Oruba will remain as one of the top teams in the Sultanate and will continue eyeing the top positions despite the challenges. “Al Oruba is one of the top domestic teams that had accomplished different achievements and will continue in this path. We are ensuring that Al Oruba will continue serving the Sultanate’s sporting sector including football.” Al Oruba has been positioned in the 13th place in the table order of Omantel League with 23 points. They are among the teams in the danger zone besides Bahla, Oman and Al Suwaiq. Mirbat has already been relegated to the first division league as they have 12 points only at the last place in the order.