Jordan Professional Football League season kicks off Friday

AMMAN — The 2016/17 Jordan Professional Football League season kicks off on Friday after much anticipation of the new season that was delayed as Jordan hosted the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup.

Last season saw Wihdat retain the title in the final week. Therefore, fans anticipate Faisali — as well as Ahli, Jazira and Shabab Urdun, who took last year’s top five spots — to fight it out for the title. Ramtha, Hussein, Baqa’a, That Ras and Sarih will be joined by newcomers Sahab and Manshieh, who were promoted from the First Division. 

The season opened with Ahli making history when they beat reigning league champs Wihdat 2-1 to win the 34th Super Cup — the first major competition on the 2016/17 football calendar. Although they are a founding member of the game in Jordan, they had never won the Super Cup. They were relegated to Division 1 in 2004 for the first time in their history and were back among the Professional League clubs in 2014, finished 5th in 2014/15 and third in 2015/16 in the league when they were also the best overall team.

The Jordan Football Association Shield — back on the calendar after four seasons — was won by Shabab Urdun, who scored a major 5-1 win over Faisali. It was Shabab Urdun’s second Shield title after they first won in 2007.

There has been a big transfer of coaches during the summer. Wihdat have former national team coach Adnan Hamad, while Faisali started off with Olympic team coach Jamal Abu Abed before he resigned and Ta’er Jassam took the helm. Ahli still have coach Maher Bahri, under whom they won the Jordan Cup and Super Cup while Shabab Urdun have Jamal Mahmoud. 

Ramtha are led by Akram Salman, while Hussein have Bilal Lahham. That Ras are led by Adel Atrash while Sarih have Abdullah Ammarin. Sahab have Islam Diyabat and Jazira are coached by Nizar Mahrous. Baqa’a have signed Ammar Zurieqi while Manshieh are led by Osama Qasem. Syrian and African stars will be among team line-ups as well with Mardig Mardigian, who hails from a long tradition of veteran footballing family in Syria, topping the list at Jazira.

The Jordan Cup preliminary round is slated to kick off December 4.