TDT | Manama
Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com
Bahrain’s senior men’s national football team departs today for Abha, Saudi Arabia, for the opening match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup continental qualifiers.
The national team, which will face Yemen in Group H tomorrow, is scheduled to kick off at 9pm Bahrain time at Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Sports City in Abha.
Bahrain are in the same pool as the UAE and Nepal in this second round of Asian Football Confederation (AFC) qualifying.
This match is also a qualifier for the AFC Asian Cup 2027. Tomorrow’s game is the first of his two games this month.
Their next match will be at home against the UAE at the National Stadium in Riffa next Tuesday. Prior to today’s departure, the national team will be joined by the President of the Bahrain Football Association (BFA), Sheikh Ali bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, and the Vice-President of the BFA, Shaikh Khalifa bin Ali bin Isa. He met with His Royal Highness Prince Al Khalifa, BFA Secretary General Rashid Al Zuubi, and BFA President Rashid Al Zuubi. other officials.
Shaikh Ali encouraged the players to do their best in the upcoming matches and also emphasized that BFA fully supports their success.
The Bahraini team has been training locally for the past few days under the supervision of head coach Juan Antonio Pizzi.
Coach Pizzi had originally called up 26 of Bahrain’s biggest names for the upcoming qualifiers, but he has recently added four more.
The newly elected candidates are Salem Hussein, Hussein Abdulkareem, Hamad Al Doseri, and Jasim Khelaif.
They are Ali Madan, Mohamed Marhoun, Abdullah Yusuf, Moses Atedeh, Mahdi Humaidan, Ahmed Bouganmal, Mohamed Adel, Mohamed Al Hadan, Abdulkarim Al Fardan, Ali Hassan, Saeed He will join a squad that already includes Mahdi Baqer, Hussein Al Akel and Komer Al. Aswad, Jassim Al-Sheikh, Mohammed Abdul-Qayoum, Hazza Ali, Saeed Mohammed Jaafar, Amin Hassan, Waleed Al-Khayyam, Abdullah Al-Kharasi, Mubarak Mohammed, Ebrahim Lutfallah, Abdullah. Al-Hashash, Ebrahim Al-Khattar, Mohamed Abdulwahab, Ebrahim Al-Wali.
AFC’s FIFA World Cup qualifying format has five rounds, with eight teams booking tickets to the Global Showcase, with the possibility of one more round following the inter-confederation play-offs.
Thirty-six countries are participating directly in this second phase, divided into nine groups of four. Each team will play against each other in a home and away format.
The nine group winners and group runners-up will advance to the third round. In addition to this, they will also automatically qualify for the AFC Asian Cup 2027.
After Bahrain’s scheduled games this month, the national team will resume qualification for the first time next year.
They will play Nepal on March 21 and again on March 26. They will then play against Yemen on June 6th and conclude this stage with a match against UAE on June 11th.
Apart from qualifying for the FIFA World Cup, Bahrain is also preparing for the next AFC Asian Cup to be held in Doha next January.
These will be the national team’s first official matches under coach Pizzi.
Sheikh Ali bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa greets national team player Mohamed Jassim Marhoun before training