Teams geared up for soccer championship

The six participating teams in the 18th GCC Club League Winners Championship - hosts Al Ain, Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia, Al Ittihad of Qatar, Salmiya of Kuwait, West Rifa'a of Bahrain and Zafar of Oman - have completed their preparations successfully. The competition will kick off tomorrow with only one game when Al Ain take on West Rifa'a in the opening match.

Teams from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman arrived here yesterday evening, but Salmiya and West Rifa'a had already arrived. Every squad is allowed to train for only 45 minutes at the venue of the championship and today's session will be the last for the teams before the competition starts.

The hosts, Al Ain, were back to training yesterday morning under their Tunisian Coach Murad Mahjoob. They are technically and physically fit for the clash as stated by their coach.

The team will benefit from the recovery of their injured players striker Majed Al Owais, goalkeeper Motaz Abdullah and midfielder Faisal Ali, who were absent for a long time due to injury.

On the other hand the technical committee will hold its meeting this morning at the Intercontinental Hotel, under the chairmanship of Abdul Aziz Hamad Al Ateya head of the GCC Organising Committee. The meeting will endorse the lists of the participating teams. Some of the refers, who are likely to affiliate the matches, have arrived to Al Ain and the rest is due to join today and tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Abdul Aziz Hamad Al Ateya stated after his arrival yesterday that the GCC Organising Committee have a lot of issues to discuss on the sideline of this event and appropriate decisions will be taken.

Al Ateya announced that a new supper championship will be introduced for the GCC Clubs. Twelve teams from the six GCC states league and cup winners will participates in this competition.