(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Hosts Oman will begin their campaign against Guinea at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex (SQSC) on Sunday to launch the second CISM World Football Cup 2017.
The match kicks off at 7.30pm and will be preceded by an opening ceremony that will be presided over by H H Sayyid Shihab bin Tariq al Said, Advisor to His Majesty the Sultan.
The showpiece world event of military football is being organised by the International Military Sports Council (CISM).
Oman, coached by Muhanna Said al Adawi, boasts of a strong line-up with the side comprising mainly the national team players, including Abdulaziz al Miqbali, Qasim Said, Mohsin Jawhar, Saad Suhail, Mohammed al Mussallami, Mohammed al Mashari, Juma Darwish, Basil al Rawahi, Saud al Farsi and Faiz al Rusheidi.
Oman will hope to better its performance from the 2013 inaugural World Cup when it finished runner-up to Iraq in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The team has been undergoing a long training camp and as part of its preparations visited Egypt to play some friendlies. Oman is pooled in Group A along with Bahrain and France in the 16-team tournament.
Group B comprises Algeria, Germany, Iran and North Korea, while Group C has Ireland, Mali, Qatar and the US. Group D includes Egypt, Poland, Canada and Syria.
Sunday will feature only the Oman-Guinea match with the remaining group games to continue till January 21 at three venues - the SQSC, the ROP Stadium and the Seeb Sports Stadium.
The quarterfinals will be played on January 24 and the semifinals will take place on January 26.
The third-place playoff and the final will be held on January 28.
Founded in 1948 in Nice, France, the CISM is among largest multi-disciplinary organisations in the world with 134 member countries.
The first military football championship took place in Prague in 1946, while the inaugural CISM World Cup was launched in 2013 in Azerbaijan with 16 nations taking part.
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