All of the Kingdom's national football squads have a busy period ahead as they prepare for their respective Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Championships.

    The senior team, U-16 and U-19 squads have qualified to their respective Asian Championship finals. The Olympic team will play in qualifiers for the Asian Games and the London Olympics, and the women's U-16 and U-19 will play in Asian qualifiers and the Asian Games qualifiers.

    HRH Prince Ali, President of the Jordan Football Association (JFA), chaired a meeting on Tuesday (July 27) and was quoted by Al Ghad daily as saying: "Supporting the national teams is of utmost priority... the JFA's strategy concentrating on not only taking part but being in competitive form."

    To this end, a busy agenda awaits all teams with training camps and friendlies during the next two months. The U-16 team plays Egypt's Ahli on Thursday (July 29) in their second match in Cairo as part of the friendly tourney in preparation for the AFC U-16 Championship which will be held in Uzbekistan from October 24 to November 7.

    In their current training camp, they beat Egypt's Shurta 2-1. The squad earlier played seven friendlies in which they beat Kuwait 3-0, lost to Iraq 9-1 and 2-1, lost to Egypt 2-0 and 4-3 after holding them to a 1-1 and 2-2 draw in Amman.

    The team qualified to the AFC U-16 Championship for the first time in history after clinching one of two qualifying berths alongside the UAE from Group D to the Asian finals, a qualifying tourney for the FIFA U-17 World Cup.

    In the qualifiers, they held former champs Oman 1-1, beat India 6-1, tied the UAE 0-0, beat Turkmenistan 3-2 and Kyrgyzstan 2-1.

    The qualification tournament brought together 45 teams playing in seven groups, including inaugural U-16 champions Saudi Arabia, who won in 1985, two-time winners South Korea, China and Japan, 1996 and 2000 champs Oman, as well as Qatar, who won the tournament once despite reaching the final a record six times.

    The top 16 Asian teams were slotted into four groups of four teams each. Group A: Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Jordan and Indonesia. Group B: Defending champs Iran, Syria, DPR Korea and Oman. Group C: 2006 champions Japan, Australia, Timor Leste and Vietnam. Group D: 2008 semifinalists the UAE, Iraq, Kuwait and China.

    Iran are set to face a tough challenge from DPR Korea, runners-up in 2004 and 2006, and Syria, who reached the last four in 2006. The top two teams in each group will qualify for the knockout quarter-finals. The four semifinalists will represent Asia at the FIFA U-17 World Cup next year.

    In the past edition, Jordan's U-16 squad was eliminated from the qualifiers after failing to score a single win and finishing last in the five-team group.

    This was the sixth time a Jordanian football team reaches the Asian Championship. The senior team moved to the Asian Cup finals in China in 2004, making it as far as the quarters, and jumping to their best ever FIFA rank of 37th. This year they reached the finals which will be held in Doha, Qatar, January 7-29, 2011.

    On the other hand, the U-19 squad made it to the AFC Championship finals three times. In 2006, the team made it to the semis and qualified to the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada, and in 2008, they struggled in qualification, and exited the championship in the first round. This year they qualified to the finals again.

    U-19 team

    The U-19 team are also in Egypt where they are holding a training camp in Ismailia until August 4 in preparation for the AFC U-19 Championship in China from October 3 to 17.

    Jordan is slated to play at least two friendlies on August 1 and 3. Team Head Coach Mohammad Abdul Atheem was quoted by Al Ghad as saying: "The upcoming friendlies aim to boost cohesion and test preparedness," adding the squad is expected to face Bahrain on August 7 and 9 and host Syria on August 16 and 18.

    The team will also host Iraq, Syria and Egypt in a friendly tourney towards the end of August.

    A total of 42 teams played for qualifying berths after being divided into seven groups of six teams each. The U-19 squad qualified to the AFC U-19 Championship after they took the lead atop Group A following their wins over Tajikistan 2-0, Palestine 3-1, Kyrgyzstan 2-1, Nepal 3-2 and tying Yemen 2-2.

    The biennial Asian youth showpiece - the second largest AFC competition (previously known as the AFC Youth Championship) - acts as a qualifying tournament for the FIFA U-20 World Cup. Jordan was drawn to play in Group C which includes defending champions the UAE, Japan and Vietnam.

    Host China will play in Group A, which comprises Thailand, Syria and two-time champions Saudi Arabia. Last edition's runners-up Uzbekistan will have five-time champions Iraq, Bahrain and DPR Korea in Group B. Group D will include 11-time champions South Korea, last edition's semifinalists Australia and four-time winners Iran and Yemen. The four semifinalists will qualify to the FIFA U-20 World Cup next year in Colombia.

    Women's team

    The women's national team will resume training this weekend after concluding a training camp in Syria where they beat their host 8-0 and 4-1.

    Coach Maher Abu Hantash told Al Ghad Daily he had given "ample playing time to all players to test their readiness".

    The women's teams will play in the Abu Dhabi Tournament starting August 20, the Arab Cup in Bahrain October 18-28 and the Asian Games qualifiers November 7-11.

    The U-19 team will play in the September 20-24 Asian Championship qualifiers. The draw put them in Group A alongside Iran, India and hosts Bangladesh. Group A includes Myanmar, Uzbekistan, Hong Kong (China) and hosts the Philippines. The top team from each group will move on to the second round.

    The U-16 team will also play in the October 1-10 Asian Championship qualifiers.

    (Aline Bannayan)