Date - 7/2/2010
Description - The Oman Football Association (OFA), which has been facing ‘financial constraints’, yesterday denied media reports about frequent visits by representatives of various companies to the association’s finance department demanding clearance of pending payments. Recently OFA Chairman Sayyid Khalid al Bausaidy admitted the Sultanate’s soccer governing body was facing financial constraints and later Muscat Sports, one of the leading distributors of sports products in both retail and wholesale sectors, dragged the OFA to court for violating a three-year sponsorship contract.
Since then speculation has been rife about growing concerns about OFA’s financial situation. However, OFA General Secretary Saleh al Farsi yesterday denied all the reports while stating that the association is in the process of clearing the pending payments. Addressing a press conference at OFA headquarters at Seeb Stadium, Al Farsi said: “The OFA is facing financial constraints. That we have already admitted and also revealed the reasons for that. But the reports of people coming to our finance department everyday seeking payments is not true.
“In fact, we are in the process of clearing all the pending payments. In the last few days, we managed to clear a deficit of about 200,000 rials. We will soon be clearing other payments as well.” Al Farsi also informed that the association has already released the funds that were due to various clubs by the end of December 2009. The OFA official also rejected the reports that several court cases have been pending against the association. “There is just one court case against us, that is filed by Muscat Sports. Other than that we have not received any notices from any court,” he said.
BEACH WORLD CUP BID
During the media briefing, Al Farsi also revealed reasons for not going ahead with the hosting bids for the 2013 Beach World Cup and the AFC Under-16 Championship. “Regarding the Beach World Cup, we had talks with the Ministry of Sports Affairs and received positive response. But the World Cup also requires the involvement and approval of various ministries and governmental organisations. So at this stage we were advised not to go ahead with the bid for the 2013 World Cup. But we will keep working on this front and we are hoping to bid for the 2-15 edition,” he said.
“And We have decided against hosting of 2010 AFC Under-16 Championship because the championship dates were clashing with the our National Day celebrations during which all the venues will not be available for the sporting activities,” he added. Speaking about the under-16 national team’s preparations for the the Asian event, he said: “The team is presently with our academy. Coach Sulaiman Khaif’s contract has expired. We will soon chalk out a plan for the team.”
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