MUSCAT, August 25
The Oman national football team will report back to the training sessions on Wednesday ahead of the opening match against Iraq at the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifiers.
The short domestic camp will take place at Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex while the team’s delegation will travel to Basra, Iraq on September 3 and the match will take place on September 5. The official opening game at the deciding qualifiers will kick off at 8 pm (Oman time) at Basra International Stadium.
“We had a visit to Basra city during August 6 to 8 ahead of the team’s arrival. The purpose of the visit was to ensure the readiness of the accommodation and training facilities beside ensuring the fans presence in the venue to support the national team. The delegation which visited Basra comprised from Ali al Khanbashi as Assistant head coach, Hussain al Zadjali as team Manager, and Nasser al Busaidi as representative of Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth,” Hussain al Zadjali said.
“My main part during the visit was linked to the accommodation and some logistics arrangement for the teams and all these were confirmed. I will be also go ahead of the team’s delegation arrival in Basra and will arrive on September 1 while the delegation will arrive by two days later. The team will stay at Grand millennium Basra hotel and the training sessions at Al Fayhaa Sport Club which can accommodate around 10,000 fans. There were no scheduled friendly matches ahead of Iraq match. The current focus is to raise the number of training sessions and keep the players in right shape,” he added.
“It is scheduled that the team will return back to Muscat in the following day of the match and they will begin an internal camp in Muscat on September 6. The following game will take place in Muscat against South Korea on September 10 and the match will start at 6 pm (Oman time). We are looking for the fans support in the both first two games against Iraq and South Korea. The initial matches are very essential to the teams’ path in their qualifiers campaign,” he added.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth (MoCSY) had launched recently in direct collaboration with Oman Football Association (OFA) the national football team’s supporting campaign in their main assignment at the deciding round of the Asian qualifiers to advance and reach 2026 Fifa World Cup. The campaign is titled under the slogan of ‘We Are All With You’.
The logo symbolises sports, speed and boldness and is designed in a single colour for versatile use across various platforms such as TV, print advertisements and social media.
The Red Warriors have high hopes to reach the Fifa World Cup as they were drawn in a balanced group that comprises of South Korea, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine and Kuwait in Group B. Oman will begin their campaign in the Asian qualifiers with an away match against Iraq in Basra city on September 5, before hosting South Korea in a key game on September 10.
Later, Red Warriors will meet Kuwait on October 10 in Muscat and it will be followed by Jordan clash on October 15 in Amman city. The concluding first leg matches will be against Palestine on November 14.
The second leg matches will begin as Oman will host Iraq in Muscat on November 19 before travelling to Seoul to face South Korea on March 20, 2025, and then Kuwait on March 25, 2025. The final group matches will be against Jordan in Muscat on June 5, 2025, and the concluding game against Palestine in an away match on June 10, 2025.
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