[02/September/2010]

MUSCAT, Sep. 02 (Saba)- The doubt over the Gulf Cup dates that will be held in Yemen from November 28 can be put to rest at least for now after Sayyid Khalid Al Busaidi, chairman of Oman Football Association told Times Sport that the regional tournament will be held as schedule.

"As far as we know the tournament will be held as planned on time and I don't see a postponement of dates," said Sayyid Khalid in response to a question by Times Sport after reports emerged that the host Yemen are yet to finish construction of the main stadium and hotels.

If the stadium and hotel are not finished, for the first time the tournament will have to be held in different stadiums with more than 10,000 capacity and the teams will have to stay in different hotels.

"I think even I read some reports on this but it could be more of a media creation and nothing more because if there is a change in schedule I think we would have got a note from the Yemeni officials but so far nothing has come," said Sayyid Khalid on the sidelines of an Iftar party hosted by Oman Football Association at the Intercontinental Hotel yesterday.

"Last week there was an inspection by the organising committee and as far as I know they are all satisfied so I don't think there should be any problem," added the charismatic football chief.

However, Times Sport has learnt that Yemeni officials have given assurances to the Gulf Cup Organising Committee that they will hand over the stadiums and other tournament facilities by October.

Interestingly, the Gulf Cup draw that was held last week was also marked by chaos when the organizers placed Bahrain in the wrong group - bringing the draw to a halt for about half an hour as the general secretaries of the associations of the participating countries met on the podium to solve the problem.

The organisers also forgot to prepare the tournament match schedule to be filled after the draw. For the first time the draw ended before the teams knew when they were playing or who they will face.

Sources informed Times Sport that in case if Yemen fails to complete the construction on time, the tournament could be moved out of that country to a possible destination such as Qatar.

Meanwhile, as part of the Gulf Cup preparation, Claude Le Roy's Red Warriors are set to play two games in Qatar next month. Oman will first face Malaysia on September 3 before meeting host Qatar on September 7.

"Our preparations are going on well and we will fly on September 1 to Qatar and we hope to have a good tournament," said Le Roy.

Saba