The Oman Professional League ( ar, دوري المحترفين عمان; known as the ''

Omantel Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel) is the first telecommunications company in Oman and is the primary provider of internet services in the country. The government of Oman owns a 51% share in Omantel. Omantel acquired 65% of WorldCall Pakist ...

Professional League'' for sponsorship reasons), previously known as the

Elite League, is the top division of the

Oman Football Association The Oman Football Association ( ar, الاتحاد العُماني لكرة القدم) is the governing body of football in Oman. It was founded in 1978, has been a member of the Asian Football Confederation and of FIFA since 1980. History T ...

, and was officially created in 1976. Currently the most successful team in the league is

Dhofar The Dhofar Governorate ( ar, مُحَافَظَة ظُفَار, Muḥāfaẓat Ẓufār) is the largest of the 11 Governorates in the Sultanate of Oman in terms of area. It lies in Southern Oman, on the eastern border with Yemen's Al Mahrah Gov ...

with a total of eleven titles to their name.

Evolution to a professional league

In 2010, during the annual draw for the Sultan Qaboos Cup, Sultan

Qaboos bin Said Qaboos bin Said Al Said ( ar, قابوس بن سعيد آل سعيد, ; 18 November 1940 – 10 January 2020) was Sultan of Oman from 23 July 1970 until his death in 2020. A fifteenth-generation descendant of the founder of the House of Al Said ...

Sultan Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...

of Oman, granted the OFA an annual 2.6 million

rial Rial, riyal, or RIAL may refer to: * Rial (surname), a surname (and list of people with the name) * Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning, McGill University * Rial Racing, a former German Formula One team Various currencies named rial ...

(approximately 6.7 million

dollars Dollar is the name of more than 20 currencies. They include the Australian dollar, Brunei dollar, Canadian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Jamaican dollar, Liberian dollar, Namibian dollar, New Taiwan dollar, New Zealand dollar, Singapore dollar, U ...

) till the year 2015 to further boost the development of the league. The move was made to nurture Oman's football youth, and create higher hopes of Oman qualifying for the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

. The deal is in addition to the annual 1.6 million rial that the Sultan gives to the OFA every year. Although being very popular in the local community, it was ranked according to the AFC as a Class D football League till the 2012–13 season. Sayyid Khalid bin Hamid Al-Busaidi, OFA President, had already announced his organization's plan to transform the Omani Football League into a professional league by 2012, and also announced to change the league's name to the Oman Mobile League. The interest from many companies such as

Nissan , trade name, trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells ...

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

and

Oman Mobile Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel) is the first telecommunications company in Oman and is the primary provider of internet services in the country. The government of Oman owns a 51% share in Omantel. Omantel acquired 65% of WorldCall Pakist ...

, was one of the main reasons why the league was expected to transform, under with the leadership of Sayyid Khalid. The contract was extended again for the 2011–12 season for another three years to be known as the

Elite League. In 2013, ahead of the 2013–14 season, it was announced that the league had taken the first steps to becoming fully professional. The Oman Football League got the seal of approval as a professional league on 1 September 2013 and will henceforth be called the Omantel Professional League (OPL). On 10 September 2014, one day before the first match of the 2014–15 season was played, Oman Football Association announced the extension of Omantel’s support for the country’s Professional League as its title sponsor. On 30 April 2016, OFA and the Public Authority for Radio and Television (PART) reached an agreement on TV broadcasting rights of all competitions and matches organised by OFA including those related to OPL and any other competitions and matches for three seasons. On 5 September 2016, the leading healthcare services provider in the Sultanate, Badr Al Samaa Group of Hospitals renewed their partnership with OFA for the 2016-17 Omani football season. On 8 September 2016, OFA confirmed that Omantel will be renewing their contract as the title sponsors of the OPL for the following three years, starting with the 2016-17 season until the 2018-19 season.

Oman Professional League clubs (2016–17)

* Al-Khabourah (

Al-Khaburah Al-Khaburah ( ar, الخابورة) is a Wilayah (province) in Al Batinah North Governorate, Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southweste ...

) *

Al-Nahda The Nahda ( ar, النهضة, translit=an-nahḍa, meaning "the Awakening"), also referred to as the Arab Awakening or Enlightenment, was a cultural movement that flourished in Arabic-speaking regions of the Ottoman Empire, notably in Egypt, ...

(

Al-Buraimi Al-Buraimi ( ar, ٱلْبُرَيْمِي, Al-Buraymī) is an oasis city and a wilayah (province) in northern Oman, on the border between Oman and the United Arab Emirates. It is the capital of the Al Buraimi Governorate. An adjacent city on the U ...

) * Al-Nasr (

Salalah Salalah ( ar, صَلَالَة, Ṣalālah) is the capital and largest city of the southern Omani governorate of Dhofar. Its population in 2009 was about 197,169. Salalah is the third-largest city in the Sultanate of Oman, and the largest city ...

) * Al-Oruba ( Sur) *

Al-Rustaq Rustaq ( ar, ٱلرُّسْتَاق, Ar-Rustāq) is a town and ''Wilayah'' (District) in Al Batinah Region of northern Oman. The wilayah is in the Western Hajar Mountains, in the south of the Batinah. Rustaq was once the capital of Oman, during ...

(

) * Al-Shabab ( Barka) * Al-Suwaiq ( Al-Suwaiq) *

(

) * Fanja ( Fanja) * Ja'lan (

Jalan Bani Bu Hassan Jalan Bani Bu Hassan ( ar, جعلان بني بو حسن) is a wilayah (province) in Ash Sharqiyah South Governorate, Oman. Geography Jalan Bani Bu Hassan is about 300 kilometres away from Muscat. It is bordered by Al Kamil Wal Wafi in the nor ...

) *

Muscat Muscat ( ar, مَسْقَط, ) is the capital and most populated city in Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is s ...

(

) *

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of t ...

(

) * Saham ( Saham) *

Sohar Sohar ( ar, صُحَار, also Romanized as Suḥār) is the capital and largest city of the Al Batinah North Governorate in Oman. An ancient capital of the country that once served as an important Islamic port town, Suhar has also been credited ...

(

)

Relegated in 2015-16

Al-Musannah Al-Musannah or Al-Mussanah ( ar, المصنعة) is a town and province in the Batinah Region of northern Oman. As of 2020 Ecensus it had a population of 99,204. See also * Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Om ...

(

) *

(

) * Sur ( Sur)

Championship History

Year by year

^*The Professional League began from the 2013–14 season

Cities

The following table lists the Oman Professional League champions by cities.

Performance by club

^*Includes championships won by Ruwi.

Topscorers

Notable achievements by Omani clubs

The only trophy won by an Omani club in the regional or continental level was by Fanja in the 1989 Persian Gulf Club Champions Cup. Fanja was the first Omani club to win an international tournament. It was the 1989 Gulf Club Champions Cup, later named

GCC Champions League The GCC Champions League ( ar, دوري أبطال الخليج للأندية), formerly known as the Gulf Cup for Clubs ( ar, كأس الخليج للأندية), was an annually organized football league tournament for clubs of the Arabian penin ...

. Fanja defeated Al-Muharraq of

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

in a penalty shootout after the match had ended 1–1 in the normal time. Fanja has appeared four times in the same tournament. In the 1993–94 Asian Club Championship Omani club,

Oman Club Oman Club ( ar, نادي عمان; also known locally as ''Al-Ahmar'', "The Red(s)" or simply as Oman) is an Omani football club based in Muscat. The club is currently playing in the First Division League of Oman Football Association. Their home ...

were awarded with second place after failing to beat

Thai Thai or THAI may refer to: * Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia ** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand ** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand *** Thai script *** Thai (Unicode block ...

club,

Thai Farmers Bank Kasikornbank ( th, ธนาคารกสิกรไทย, , Teochew: Khai-thài Ngîng-hâng, , stylised in all caps), often stylised as KBank and formerly known as the Thai Farmers Bank is a banking group in Thailand. KBank was establishe ...

. A few years later in 1996,

attempted to win the GCC Champions Cup, as Fanja did in 1989, but failed in the final match against Saudi club,

Al-Nassr Al Nassr Football Club ( ar, نادي النصر السعودي; '' Naṣr'' meaning ''Victory'') is a Saudi Arabian football club based in Riyadh. Formed in 1955, the club plays its home games at the Mrsool Park. Their home colours are yello ...

and finished with second place. Most recently

competed in the

2008 AFC Cup The 2008 AFC Cup was the fifth edition of the AFC Cup, playing between clubs from nations who are members of the Asian Football Confederation. Qualified teams 20 clubs will be competing, including champions of the national leagues and champio ...

, but were knocked-out in the semi-finals by eventual champions of the competition, Al-Muharraq on scoring aggregate.

References

External links

table xscores.comKooora Omani League SeasonsOman Elite League – Hailoosport.comOman Professional League summary
- Soccerway {{AFC Leagues Oman Professional League, 1

Sports leagues established in 1976