A month long tournament? Maybe they're planning on having two legged qualifiers between the bottom 10 sides with the five winners joining the host and the top two teams.
I don't think they have confirmed the dates, it's just the timeframe they will play between. They can't confirm dates until they know who enters and what qualification will look like. Telling nations they will play between November and December does help the nations decide to enter or not. Will they play one group, 2 groups etc, no one knows until 21st Jan when teams either confirm participation or reject it.
Have you heard anymore, like, how has entered!! Deadline was in January, and since then nothing ever said. Will Kenny Dalglish be in charge of anyone!!
Druryfire my dear, are you drunk? Just kidding. I seriously didn't understand your question. If you meant if I heard anything new about the competition, I didn't actually. All I know is that it's in Kuwait and it gives us a chance to defend the title. Honestly though, I don't care too much about this tournament. At least we won it one time. I think it'll go back to Iran's hands. They love this competition.
Sorry, my question was, have you heard anything about the tournament, such as have all WAFF nations entered? And yes, i'm off work this week, had a beer or two, so your close to the mark at the drunk stage!
Yeah I'm afraid I haven't heard anything at all. I'm sure the likes of Jordan, Iran, Syria and Iraq are in it. Plus Kuwait and maybe Lebanon or Qatar. By the way Druryfire, I missed you!
Yeah I'm sorry for that LOL. Uni suddenly gets harder near the end. >____< Congrats for finishing above us in the league.
Sure, why not. I'm going to Bath this summer. Gonna visit my mother's family/relatives. Where exactly is your hometown?
North, keeping going for about 5 hours and when it gets colder you've probably arrived. I can show you our derlict football ground.
12 member associations confirmed their participation, whom are: Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iran, Bahrain, Syria, Lebanon, Oman, Yemen, Palestine, Iraq and UAE Qatar don't want to play at the ball http://www.the-waff.com/more.asp?newsid=534&catid=6&lang=eng
More like 3 groups of 4 teams with best runner to qualify and probably win it after coming runne rup on 2 points and drawing both games 0:0, winning the semi and final on penalties. Gives Kuwait a chance then.
So Saudi Arabia finally accepted the invite. Good. It'll make it a bit more interesting. Actually I think its gonna be pretty competetive with nations like Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Syria not to mention Kuwait the host who will want to defend their title. All strong teams. Could be anyone's tournament.
Seem's like it's back to the very basics for Saudi Arabia. Arab Nations Cup revived, playing at WAF Championship. Two regional tournaments in 1 year for them. What Iranian team do you expect to appear? A young team baring in mind that they are in WCQ. Of course the same is for Jordan, Iraq, Oman and Lebanon but you do get the feeling that Iran can still be competitive with an age related side whereas the aforementioned would need their strongest setups. Also, the deadline was last January, although it's only just been announced, can we still expect these 12 nations? Lebanon have pulled out of recent editions and with the unexpected extended World Cup matches, do you think they would pull out again?
Saudi made a good choice to accept. Its time for the rebuilding process so there would be no excuse for not accepting this. If all the 12 nations you mentioned indeed does participate then its gonna be very competetive. Its up for grabs by almost any of the teams. As for what squad Iran will be likely to send. Well in recent friendly matches (against Mauritania and Mozambique) we have used a selection of IPL players. I saw a lot of new faces. I suspect (but not at all sure) we are gonna send an expiremental side with a mix of bench players from our current WCQ roster, IPL prospects and maybe even some from the olympic team and/or U-21. And potentially a couple of our main starters, but this would be the ideal tournament to further test emerging talents like Payam Sadeghian, Omid Alishah, Reza Haghighi (defensive midfielder who has been very solid in the 2-3 national team matches he has played so far), Omid Ebrahimi etc. It could be we are gonna send an A-team minus European based players, but its not the vibe Im getting from Carlos Quieroz. Remains to be seen. I think its gonna be a pretty good squad, regardless which I think will be able to compete strongly. On the Iraqi side, there seems to be a lot of demand from the fans to test younger players but Zico want to play already established players in WCQ. I guess this would be the tournament for them play untested young players. No idea what Jordan and Oman will do though. It would be stupid of Lebanon to pull out if you ask me. They should compete and send their strongest A-team in order for the team to gel together further, prior to the world cup qualifier in March.
Ah.. I kinda wanted CQ to lead the charge and also not just to send an U-22. But it could be good in terms of the U-22 being more cordinated than otherwise. Dont know anything about Mansourian's coaching and tactical ability however, so no idea how well the U-22 is gonna compete. Oh well, no biggie.
Qatar not expected to enter: http://www.qfa.com.qa//qatar-team-line-up-two-friendlies-in-september.aspx
Draw is set for September 16. Teams will be placed in three pots for the draw based on latest FIFA rankings: Pot 1 Kuwait (Host Country), Iran, Iraq, Jordan Pot 2 Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, UAE Pot 3 Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Yemen
The draw's been made: The groups: - Group A: Kuwait (hosts), Oman, Lebanon, Palestine. - Group B: Iran, Bahrain, Yemen, Saudi Arabia. - Group C: Iraq, Syria, Jordan. UAE suddenly not part of the competition. http://www.the-waff.com/more.asp?newsid=594&catid=1&lang=eng