Dhofar Club
نادي ظفار
Full nameDhofar Sports, Cultural and Social Club
نادي ظفار الرياضي الثقافي و الاجتماعي
Nickname(s)Al-Zaeem
(The Leaders/The Bosses)
Founded1968 (1968) (as Al-Shaab)
20 May 1972 (20 May 1972) (as Dhofar)
GroundAl-Saada Stadium
Salalah Sports Complex
Salalah, Oman
Capacity20,000
8,000
ChairmanBadar Ali Said Al-Rawas
ManagerRasheed Jaber
LeagueOman Professional League
2022–234th
WebsiteClub website

Dhofar Sports, Cultural and Social Club (Arabic: نادي ظفار الرياضي الثقافي الاجتماعي; commonly known as Dhofar Club, nicknamed locally as Al-Zaeem, or "The Leader(s)" because of their great success, or just plainly as Dhofar) is an Omani sports club based in Salalah, Oman.[1] The club is currently playing in the Oman Professional League, top division of Omani football. Their home ground is Al-Saada Stadium, but they also recognize the older Salalah Sports Complex as their home ground. Both stadiums are government owned, but they also own their own personal stadium and sports equipment, as well as their own training facilities.

History

The idea for the foundation of a club in Salalah began in the 1960s resulting in various meetings among the town's people. The names considered for the new club were Al-Ahlia, Al-Nahda, Al-Arabi, and Al-Shoala, but the name to be chosen for the club was to be "Al-Shaab", a name literally translating to "The People",[2] and in 1968 the new club was finally founded.

Two years later the young club merged with the neighboring club Al-Shoala from the Dahariz district of Salalah and was re-founded as Dhofar in 1970 appointing Salim Al-Kathiri as the club's first president, a position which was held by him till 1975.[3] Officially, the club was founded on 20 May 1972 and was registered on 26 June 2002.

Dhofar is the most successful club in the Omani League with a total of eleven championships[4] and ten Sultan Qaboos Cup titles[5] to their name. Dhofar have also reached the final of the 1995–1996 Gulf Club Champions Cup, only losing to Saudi giants, Al-Nassr. The club has never been relegated to second division. They have a long lasting rivalry with neighbours Al-Nasr S.C. Although being relatively younger in foundation than many other Arab clubs, which generally were founded in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, Dhofar has been ranked as the 30th most successful club title-wise in the Arab World with a total of 19 titles.[6]

Dhofar, along with the neighbours Al-Nasr have been generally labelled as the front runners of the Omani League, but as seen in the recent seasons, both the clubs performed horribly with Dhofar losing many games, and not going far in the Sultan Qaboos Cup, along with Al-Nasr who even got relegated in the 2010–11 season.

The club in the 2009–10 season made a season comeback with their performances in the Sultan Qaboos Cup by reaching the final against a lower-leveled Saham. Saham won the match 7–6 on penalties after the match had ended 2–2 at normal time.

Dhofar also received second place in the 2009–10 Omani League losing only a few points short of first-time winners, Al-Suwaiq,[7] and in the process qualified for the 2011 AFC Cup. After the end of the second-place finish earlier in the 2009–10 season, Dhofar made major signings and re-signings to boost the club's performance in future competitions.[8] Then in the next season, they were placed 4th in the league table securing 30 points from 22 games. Dhofar lost all its last 5 matches in the 2010–11 season. It further went down in the 2011–12 season and was placed 12th in the league. But at the end of the same season they also won their 8th Sultan Qaboos Cup title by winning 1–0 against neighbours Al-Ittihad.[9][10] In the previous season of the Omani League, Dhofar was ranked 6th in the league. This was one of their worst performances in the top division football. In 2013, Dhofar appointed Dragan Talajić of Croatia as their manager.

Before the beginning of the 2014-15 Oman Professional League season, on 4 July 2014 the club appointed Romanian manager Petre Gigiu who had managed Al-Seeb Club and Sur SC in the 2013–14 Oman Professional League. His first triumph as a manager of the club came in the pre-season preparations of the club when he led his side to win the 2014 Baniyas SC International Tournament winning two matches, 2–1 against United Arab Emirates national under-23 football team and 1–0 against Bahraini Premier League club Hidd SCC.[11]

Other sports

Although being mainly known for their football, Dhofar S.C.S.C. like many other clubs in Oman, have not only football in their list, but also hockey, volleyball, handball, basketball, badminton and squash. They also have a youth football team competing in the Omani Youth league.

Crest and colours

A Lotto-sponsored Dhofar S.C.S.C. jersey along with a Grand Sport-sponsored cap

Like the Oman national football team, Dhofar S.C.S.C. have also long-chosen red as the color to represent them, varying themselves from neighbors Al-Ittihad (Green), Al-Nasr S.C.S.C. (Blue) and Salalah SC (Blue) kits. Historically, they usually wore a red jersey with white shorts, but after the 1990s they began to wear a full red kit.

Over the years, they have had numerous kit providers, ranging from Puma to Lotto and Grand Sport. As of now, Nike provides them with kits. Currently, Oasis Grace L.L.C. is featured on the team's shirt.

They have also had many different sponsors over the years, but rarely featured a shirt sponsor (only during notable matches such as the Sultan Qaboos Cup final). Omani newspaper, Al-Watan, Dhofar Insurance, Al Makan Cafe and Bank Muscat have all been featured on their kit at one point in their history.

Honours

National titles

  • Winners 1977, 1980, 1981, 1990, 1999, 2004, 2006, 2011, 2019–20, 2020–21
  • Runners-up 1984, 1993, 2009
  • Winners 1999, 2017, 2019
  • Runners-up 2000, 2005, 2012

Youth and friendly

  • Gulf Club Champions Cup U-17 (1):
  • Winners 1994
  • Winners 2014

Club performance: international competitions

AFC competitions

UAFA competitions

  • 1982 : 6th Position
  • 1986 : 3rd Position
  • 1991 : 4th Position
  • 1994 : 6th Position
  • 1995 : Runners-up
  • 1995 : Runners-up
  • 2001 : 3rd Position
  • 2002 : 5th Position
  • 2008 : Group stage
  • 2011 : Quarter-Finals

Players

First-team squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
1 GK Oman OMA Faiz Al-Rushaidi
2 DF Oman OMA Mohammed Rabea
3 DF Oman OMA Amer Said Al-Shatri
4 DF Oman OMA Nadhir Awadh
8 DF Oman OMA Ali Salim Al-Nahar
9 FW Jordan JOR Odai Khadr
10 MF Kuwait KUW Talal Jazea
11 MF Oman OMA Hamid Al-Noufali
12 GK Oman OMA Mohsin Al-Hajri
15 MF Oman OMA Naif Khamis Nasib
17 MF Oman OMA Basim Al-Rajaibi
19 MF Oman OMA Abdullah Fawaz
20 MF Oman OMA Hussain Al-Hadhri
21 MF Oman OMA Majdi Al-Soori
27 MF Oman OMA Muheeb Al-Noobi
23 DF Oman OMA Nabil Ashoor
No. Pos. Nation Player
24 DF Oman OMA Nashmi Saleh
25 DF Oman OMA Mo'ayyad Awadh Salim
26 DF Oman OMA Mohammed Saleh Abd Raboh
28 DF Oman OMA Nashid Abdul Qadir
33 FW Oman OMA Shabeeb Saleh
35 DF Oman OMA Tariq Mukhallaf
36 DF Oman OMA Suhail Ali Hassan
40 GK Oman OMA Hani Al-Sabti
— DF Oman OMA Omar Ba'Omar
— MF Oman OMA Abdul Al-Shamas
— MF Oman OMA Ahmed Abdul Khair
— MF Oman OMA Moataz Salah
— MF Oman OMA Abdullah Hamid
— MF Oman OMA Esam Abdul Majeed
— FW Oman OMA Abdullah Khamis

Personnel

Technical staff

Position Name
Head coach Romania Grigore Sichitiu
Assistant coach Romania Alexandru Iliuciuc
Oman Saleh Abd Raboh Juman
Goalkeeping coach Romania Cristian Patru
Team Manager Oman Faisal Al-Rowas
Oman Ahmed Sufrar
Oman Ahmed Awadh Bashir
Oman Said Faraj Al-Saleem
Club doctor Egypt Hisham Mohammed

Management

Position Staff
ChairmanSheikh Badar Ali Said Al-Rowas
Vice-PresidentSheikh Ali Farah Al-Hadhri
General secretaryAbdullah Mukaddam
Board memberAhmed Awadh Al-Rowas
Board memberHafidh Salim Al-Rowas
Board memberSaid Ghalib Al-Rowas

Presidential history

Below is the official presidential history of Dhofar S.C.S.C., from when Salim Annou Al-Kathiri took over at the club in 1970, until the present day.[12]

Name From To
Salim Annou Al-Kathiri 1970 1975
Ali Said Badr Al-Rawas 1975 1976
Saif Hafidh Abdullah Al-Rawas 1976 1986
Ahmed Salim Amer Al-Rawas 1986 1997
Ghazi Said Abdullah Al-Rawas 1997 2000
Hamid Ahmed Al-Aajayli 2000 2004
Naif Omar Awadh Al-Rawas 2004 2006
Badr Ali Said Al-Rawas 2006 2014
Ali Said Al-Rawas 2014 present

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Dhofar SCSC Salala". national-football-teams.com. Archived from the original on 31 May 2014. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  2. ↑ https://translate.google.com/#ar%7Cen%7C%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D8%B9%D8%A8 – Archived 2 January 2020 at the Wayback Machine Google translation from Arabic to English of Al-Shaab
  3. ↑ "Dhofar S.C. history". Archived from the original on 12 February 2009. Retrieved 4 March 2010.
  4. ↑ "Dhofar League titles". Archived from the original on 8 January 2015. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
  5. ↑ "Dhofar S.Q.C. titles". Archived from the original on 8 January 2015. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
  6. ↑ "Dhofar ranked as 30th most successful club in West Asia and North Africa (ARCHIVE, must have log-in to view page)". Archived from the original on 8 January 2015. Retrieved 3 January 2010.
  7. ↑ "09-10 league table". Archived from the original on 27 December 2010. Retrieved 23 September 2010.
  8. ↑ "(Arabic) Kooora announces signings and re-signings of the 2010 offseason". Archived from the original on 29 May 2010. Retrieved 23 September 2010.
  9. ↑ "Dhofar Club to celebrate HM's Cup victory". Oman Tribune. Archived from the original on 26 August 2014. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  10. ↑ "DHUFAR VS. AL ITTEHAD 1 – 0". soccerway.com. Archived from the original on 17 December 2018. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  11. ↑ "ظفار يتوج ببطولة بني ياس الودية". kooora.com. Archived from the original on 8 January 2015. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  12. ↑ "History of Dhofar's presidents (bottom of page)". Archived from the original on 12 February 2009. Retrieved 4 March 2010.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.