Muscat, (ONA) - The Oman Professional League (OPL) of the Oman Football Association announced the proposal for the local football championships for the next season 2020/2021 through a press meeting that was held in the conference hall of Al-Seeb Sports Stadium, in the presence of Hisham bin Salem Al-Adwani, Director of Oman Professional League and various media.
Al-Adwani, Director of Oman Professional League, talked about the various levels of the new season's calendar, in which he mentioned that the interruption period for FIFA days and also the upcoming foreign participations of our national teams and clubs were taken into account, indicating in the end that the medical protocol will be applied before entering these competitions for all participating clubs to have a good season in light of the conditions of the coronavirus pandemic.
Hisham Al-Adwani explained that the new season 2020/2021 competitions will start on December 3, and will end on April 30, 2021, provided that it is preceded by the registration period for the first players before the start of the season, and it will be during the period from November 9 to January 30, 2021. The second registration period for various local competitions will be from the first of March and ends on the 28th of the same month.
As for Omantel League matches, the first phase matches will be held through a one-round league system. After that, according to the order of the clubs in the league championship, the clubs will be distributed into two groups as a second stage, the first group for clubs that carry the odd number in the ranking, and the second group for clubs that carry the even number in the ranking, so that each group plays the one-round league system. After the end of the second stage and according to the points collected by the clubs through the matches of the two stages, the teams participating in the league are re-arranged from the first to the last, and the champion, the runner-up, and the club winning the third place are crowned, and the three clubs that will be at the bottom of the league’s general standings will be relegated to the first division in the next season. All Omantel League matches will be played on sports complexes in the various governorates of the Sultanate without spectators.
The matches of His Majesty the Sultan's Football Cup will be held in the same competition system as it was in the last sports season 2019/2020 through the start of the 32nd round of the competition with a knockout system to qualify 16 teams, then 8 teams, and then 4 teams play the two-round league system, so that the two winners qualify for the final match, and its start date will be determined later, and matches will be held at youth complexes in various governorates, while the closing date will be on April 9.
In the first division, the matches will be held in the same competition system, as it is for the 2019/2020 sports season, and only the first stage of the group league is modified to be played in the home and away system only, as the participating teams will be divided into four groups according to the geographical location. The matches will start on December 3 and end on April 28, 2021, and the matches will be held at the stadiums of the participating clubs.
The U-21 League (the Federation Cup) matches will be held in conjunction with the Omantel League and the First Division, and will start on the first of December, while the closing date of this competition will be set at a later time, provided that the matches will be held at the clubs' stadiums.
As for the competitions for 15, 17 and 19 years’ age groups, they will start on the first of January 2021 and there will be a time interval of one week between the start of the competition for each of these three age groups whose matches will be held at the clubs' stadiums.
(ONA)