BAHRAIN's national soccer team received a major financial aid yesterday when the Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa ordered the allocation of BD1.2 million for the team's preparations for the upcoming 2010 World Cup qualifying round. General Organisation for Youth and Sports president Shaikh Fawaz bin Mohammed Al Khalifa delivered the good news to the members of the team during a training session last night at the Bahrain Football Association grounds in Riffa.
Shaikh Fawaz said the amount will be benefited for the team's two-week training camp in Austria which starts tomorrow.
At the camp, Bahrain will play against several European clubs as part of their preparations for the final qualifying round which gets underway on September 6. Among top teams whom Bahrain will face are Bundesliga side Schalke, Stoke City of the English Premiership and Czech Republic's Sigma Olomouc.
The Goys chief added that this generous gesture will help national team players sign up with their local clubs and will be treated as professionals.
Shaikh Fawaz thanked the Prime Minister on behalf of the team for his continued support, adding that this aid will boost the morale of the team ahead of the next and crucial stage of the qualifier during which Bahrain will be hoping to book their first ever berth in the world cup finals to be staged in South Africa.
In the final qualifying stage, Bahrain will battle it out in a relatively tough Group 'A' which consists of Australia, Japan, Uzbekistan and neighbours Qatar with the top two teams advancing to the World Cup finals. Bahrain failed to make the cut for the 2006 World Cup in Germany last time round by a whisker.
In the inter-AFC playoff, the Bahrainis beat Uzbekistan on the away goal rule before narrowly losing to Concacaf side Trinidad and Tobago 1-2 in the inter-continental playoff.
Since emerging as a rising power in the final qualifying round for Korea/Japan 2002, Bahrain made consistent progress over recent years to be installed among the continent's best.
They finished only behind Saudi Arabia and Iran in that qualifying competition, and the team's primary rebuilding process culminated in 2003.
They went on to shock the continental stage the following year, storming into the last four of the 2004 Asian Cup.
Pitted against Iran and Japan in the final qualifying round of the 2006 qualifier, Bahrain could manage no better than to finish behind the two powerhouses, but the third-place finish ahead of North Korea set up a two-legged play-off with Uzbekistan, where they advanced on away goals.
