Top four Jordan football clubs seek lead in Pro League

AMMAN  — The past three rounds of matches were a chance for Faisali and Ramtha to leap and lead the standings as teams returned to local football action after Asian competitions, as well as, national team qualifiers.

The 10th week of 69th Jordan Professional Football League kicks off on Thursday with Faisali playing fourth placed Salt, Ramtha playing Shabab Urdun while Jazira meet 8th placed Aqaba.

Both leading teams were able to score three consecutive wins leaving reigning champs Wihdat third before they play Sahab. In other matches, Hussein play Baqa’a, who are in last place, after losing all their matches, while Ma’an meet Jalil.

Faisali are in the lead after they beat Ramtha 2-1, as Wihdat beat Jazira beat 1-0 to remain in the top three with a postponed match and an easy encounter against Sahab this week. Decisive matches for the lead include Shabab Urdun and Ramtha this weekend and Wihdat versus Faisali next week. Those matches should help shape the run for the title with Shabab Urdun and Jazira basking midway through the standings.

The league has witnessed inconsistent performances, as players returned to their clubs after the national team was eliminated from 2022 World Cup qualifiers, and now has to go through another stage of qualifying to get to the 2023 Asian Cup. Following that the squad advanced to the FIFA Arab Cup on a technicality after South Sudan was forced to forfeit its match with over six members of the squad contracting the COVID-19.

So far in local competitions, a newcomer to the Pro League, relatively unknown Jalil, overcame Wihdat to win the 34th Jordan Football Association (JFA) Shield — the first of the season competitions. Wihdat jumped back to win their 14th Super Cup when they beat one-time winners Jazira in 38th Jordan Super Cup, the second title up for grabs in the 2021 football season.

Last season, Wihdat won their 17th league title while Jazira finished runner-up, leaving Ramtha third and former champs Faisali settled for fifth after Salt. Sarih dropped alongside eight-time league champ veterans Ahli after a disappointing season. Ahli, were relegated last decade but came back to win the Jordan Cup in 2015 and played in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Jalil and Baqa’a joined the 12-club Pro League this year.  Wihdat also won their 10th JFA Shield title. Faisali overcame Jazira to win their 17th Jordan Super Cup as the Jordan Cup was scrapped from the agenda for the first time since the competition kicked off in 1980.

Since the league kicked off in 1944 with only Faisali, Ahli, Urdun and Homenetmen competing, Faisali are 34 time record league champs while Wihdat won 17 times since they joined in 1980. Although Faisali are the all-time record titleholders, Wihdat’s record is quite impressive. After four years in the Pro League, they won their first title in 1980 and have gone on to win the majority of titles since then.

On the regional scene, Wihdat played Group D of the Asian Champions League but was knocked out in the first round. In the AFC Cup, Salt, who played their inaugural AFC Cup, advanced to the semifinals of the West Asia Zone after taking second spot in Group B, while Faisali were knocked out after finishing third in Group C. The top team in each of the zone’s three groups alongside the best second placed team moved on to the zonal semifinals before teams play the advanced inter zonal knockout stages and final of the second-tier Asian club competition. The zonal semifinals will be played in September when Salt play Kuwait FC and Lebanon’s Al Ahed face Bahrain’s Muharraq. 

In the 2020 AFC Cup, Faisali played alongside Jazira before the tournament was scrapped with the COVID-19 pandemic halting regional and international sporting agendas.