Sport news

Oman Football Association Chairman Sayyid Khalid bin Hamed al Busaidy (fourth from left) speaks during a press conference held
to introduce national team’s new coach Julio Cesar Ribas (fourth from right) Uruguay and his coach staff at the Shangri-La’s Barr
al Jissah Resort and Spa yesterday.

By A Seshagiri Rao
MUSCAT — The Oman Football Association (OFA) presented the newly appointed national team coach Julio Cesar Ribas before the media at Shangri-La’s Barr al Jissah Resort and Spa yesterday. The OFA has drawn a lot of flak from the media and football circles for appointing the Uruguayan, who had no previous coaching experience in Gulf, to the post. But yesterday after being introduced by the OFA Chairman Sayyid Khalid bin Hamed al Busaidy, Julio Ribas tried to silence all the doubters while revealing his vision for Oman football and its success.

A confident looking Julio Ribas at the outset said that he and his team are here with big plans for Oman football and with the help of all concerned are ready to put those plans into practice. “We are confident of taking Oman football to next level. We will surely work to get better results at the Gulf Cup (to be hosted in Muscat in 2009) and achieve qualification for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa,” he said. The Uruguayan is here with a six-member team that includes Fanja Club’s former coach Omar Borras.

The OFA is said have roped in Julio Ribas following a recommendation from the Omar, who coached Fanja during its golden period under the leadership of Sayyid Khalid in 80s and 90s. The other members of Ribas team are Juan Verzeri (assistant coach), Julio Giosca and Alberto Claviso (physical trainers), Alberto Ganeglius (physio) and Hugo Quenedo (goalkeeping coach).  Sayyid Khalid said “as of now OFA’s media officer Mohammed al Balushi will take up the role of the interpreter and he will be the medium of communication between the coaching staff and the players.” Director of the national teams Rasheed Jaber will take care of the liaising between the OFA and the teams.

Revealing the details of the contract, Sayyid Khalid said: “The contract has been signed for two years, with an optional clause to extend it for a further two years. The whole package for the coach is around $400,000 per annum, while the package for the entire staff is around $1million per year. The OHA chief said that there were no major clauses in the contract. “There are no major conditions as such. The focus obviously will be Gulf Cup and also a berth in the 2010 World Cup. And there will definitely be some financial incentives if we achieve the top position at the Gulf Cup and World Cup qualification.”

Julio Ribas’ first major test will be a World Cup qualification game against Bahrain on February 6 and his team has already started the working in right earnest with a training camp that started yesterday. Sayyid Khalid said: “The training camp will start today and it will be a closed one. It will run till February 7. The professional players who are playing abroad will join the camp on January 23.” Meanwhile, the OHA chairman also revealed that a proposed friendly against Denmark has been cancelled. “It was coach’s idea. He wanted to have more training session than playing a match against Denmark.

Now we can have 16 training sessions, eight more than we originally planned,” he said. Ribas, who has travelled to Qatar and Kuwait to see the Oman players in action, said that he asked the OFA to cancel the Denmark friendly because he wanted to reduce the burden on those professional players. However, the OFA will go ahead with a planned friendly against Singapore on January 27 though the coach also wants another friendly against Kuwait (January 30) cancelled. “We will think about the Kuwait friendly after checking the Qatar League schedule. If there are matches during that week we will decide against playing Kuwait match,” he said.