2016–17 Oman Professional League

The 2016–17 Oman Professional League (known as the Omantel Professional League for sponsorship reasons^[1]) is the 41st edition of the top football league in Oman. The season will begin on 17 September 2016 and is set to conclude on 12 May 2017.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Fanja SC are the defending champions, having won their record ninth title in the previous 2015–16 Oman Professional League season.^[7]

Oman Professional League

Season	2016–17
Champions	Dhofar (10th title)
Relegated	Al-Khabourah Ja'lan Al-Rustaq
Matches played	182
Goals scored	476 (2.62 per match)
Top goalscorer	Essam Al-Barahi (16 goals)
Biggest home win	Dhofar 3–0 Fanja (30 September 2016) Dhofar 4–1 Saham (18 October 2016) Al-Nahda 3–0 Oman (31 October 2016) Oman 4–1 Sohar (5 November 2016) Al-Shabab 3–0 Dhofar (2 December 2016) Al-Nahda 3–0 Saham (2 December 2016) Al-Shabab 3–0 Al-Khabourah (24 February 2017) Al-Suwaiq 4–1 Saham (19 March 2017)
Biggest away win	Al-Nasr 1–5 Muscat (16 February 2017) Al-Nasr 0–4 Al-Suwaiq (1 March 2017) Al-Rustaq 1–5 Oman (7 April 2017)
Highest scoring	Saham 5–3 Ja'lan (10 May 2017)
Longest winning run	Al-Shabab (4 games)
Longest unbeaten run	Dhofar Al-Shabab (10 games)
Longest losing run	Al-Rustaq (7 games)
← 2015–16 2017–18 →

Teams

This season the league has 14 teams. Sur SC and Salalah SC were relegated to the Oman First Division League after finishing in the relegation zone in the 2015–16 Oman Professional League season. Al-Musannah SC too failed to secure their spot in the Oman Professional League as they were defeated 3-2 on aggregate in the Relegation/Promotion playoff by Ja'lan SC who had finished third in the 2015–16 Oman First Division League. The three relegated teams were therefore replaced by Oman First Division League winners Al-Rustaq SC, the runners-up of Oman Club and third position holders Ja'lan SC.

Stadiums and locations

Muscat
Oman

Fanja

Al-Nasr
Dhofar

Al-Oruba

Ja'lan

Sohar

Al-Nahda

Al-Khabourah

Al-Rustaq

Al-Shabab

Al-Suwaiq

Saham

Locations of teams in the 2016–17 Omani League

Note: Table lists clubs in alphabetical order.

Club	Home city	Stadium	Capacity
Al-Khabourah SC	Al-Khaburah	Nizwa Sports Complex	10,000
Al-Nahda	Al-Buraimi	Al-Buraimi Sports Complex	10,000
Al-Nasr S.C.S.C.	Salalah	Al-Saada Stadium	12,000
Al-Oruba SC	Sur	Sur Sports Complex	8,000
Al-Rustaq SC	Al-Rustaq	Al-Seeb Stadium	14,000
Al-Shabab Club	Barka	Al-Seeb Stadium	14,000
Al-Suwaiq Club	Al-Suwaiq	Al-Seeb Stadium	14,000
Dhofar S.C.S.C.	Salalah	Al-Saada Stadium	12,000
Fanja SC	Fanja	Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex	39,000
Ja'lan SC	Jalan Bani Bu Hassan	Sur Sports Complex	8,000
Muscat Club	Muscat	Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex	39,000
Oman Club	Muscat	Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex	39,000
Saham Club	Saham	Sohar Regional Sports Complex	19,000
Sohar SC	Sohar	Sohar Regional Sports Complex	19,000

Personnel and kits

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Head Coach	Assistant Coach	Captain	Kit Manufacturer	Shirt Sponsor
Al-Khabourah	Sherif El-Khashab[8][9]	Khalid Al-Alawi	Ismail Al-Ajmi	Uhlsport
Al-Nahda	Khalifa Al-Muzahami		Mansoor Al-Nuaimi	Uhlsport
Al-Nasr	Abdul Naser Mkayes[10]		Faiz Al-Rushaidi Ahmed Salim Bait Said Fahad Nasib Bamasila	Nike	Jeep
Al-Oruba	Ahmed Al-Alawi	Faruq Abdullah		Uhlsport
Al-Rustaq	Al-Mustafa Suwaib	Ibrahim Al-Salami		Erreà
Al-Shabab	Salim Sultan[11]	Hassan Al-Balushi		Uhlsport
Al-Suwaiq	Hakeem Shaker[12]	Abdel Halim Bouardi	Mohammed Al-Balushi Anwar Al-Alawi Mohammed Al-Musalami	Joma	Fatik Oman & UAE Exchange
Dhofar	Manuel José Alves Ramos[13][14]	Alexandru Iliuciuc	Nadhir Awadh Bashir	Adidas
Fanja	Al-Taj Mahboob[15]	Leanardo Joel Silva Viera	Mohammed Al-Mashari	Select Sport
Ja'lan	Talal Al-Mashaikhi			Tatweg
Muscat	Mohsin Darwish Al-Balushi	Sultan Al-Touqi[16]	Qasim Al-Balushi	Uhlsport
Oman	Andrés García Tébar[17]	Juan Bautista	Mohammed Al-Busaidi	Adidas
Saham	Zoran Popović	Yaqoob Ismail	Nasser Al-Ali	Uhlsport
Sohar	Emad Dahbour			Erreà

Managerial changes

^[18]

Team	Outgoing Manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming Manager	Date of appointment
Al-Khaboura	Ammar Al-Shamali[19]	Sacked	27 October 2016[20]	11th	Sherif El-Khashab	28 October 2016
Al-Nasr	Manu Calleja[21][22]	Mutual consent	20 September 2016[23]	6th	Akram Habreish	20 September 2016
Al-Nasr	Akram Habreish	Caretaker role finished	24 September 2016	2nd	Abdul Naser Mkayes	24 September 2016
Al-Oruba	Fabio Lopez[24][25]	Sacked	23 September 2016	3rd	Ahmed Al-Alawi	23 September 2016
Al-Shabab	Waleed Al-Saadi	Mutual consent	29 December 2016	1st	Salim Sultan	29 December 2016
Al-Suwaiq	Abderrazak Khairi	Sacked	23 September 2016[26]	14th	Ali Al-Khanbashi	23 September 2016
Al-Suwaiq	Ali Al-Khanbashi	Sacked	24 October 2016[27][28]	9th	Hakeem Shaker	27 October 2016
Dhofar	Hamza El-Gamal[29]	Mutual consent	6 December 2016[30][31]	2nd	Alexandru Iliuciuc	6 December 2016
Dhofar	Alexandru Iliuciuc	Caretaker role finished	1 January 2017	2nd	Manuel José Alves Ramos	1 January 2017
Fanja	Manuel José Alves Ramos[32]	Sacked	1 November 2016[33][34]	10th	Leanardo Joel Silva Viera	1 November 2016
Fanja	Leanardo Joel Silva Viera	Caretaker role finished	3 January 2017	8th	Al-Taj Mahboob	3 January 2017
Ja'lan	Mohammed Al-Azari	Sacked	16 October 2016[35]	14th	Talal Al-Mashaikhi	16 October 2016
Muscat	Sherif El-Khashab[36]	Sacked	24 October 2016[37][38]	14th	Sultan Al-Touqi	24 October 2016
Muscat	Sultan Al-Touqi	Caretaker role finished	3 December 2016	13th	Mohsin Darwish Al-Balushi[39]	3 December 2016
Saham	Abdul Naser Mkayes[40][41]	Mutual Consent	1 September 2016[42]	Pre-Season	Musabah Al-Saadi	1 September 2016
Saham	Musabah Al-Saadi	Sacked	19 October 2016[43]	7th	Abdel Halim Bouardi	19 October 2016
Saham	Abdel Halim Bouardi	Sacked	6 November 2016	7th	Zoran Popović[44][45]	10 November 2016
Sohar	Abdul-Ameer Ahmad	Sacked	8 September 2016	Pre-Season	Mourad Moulay Hassan	8 September 2016
Sohar	Mourad Moulay Hassan	Sacked	25 December 2016[46][47]	4th	Emad Dahbour[48]	19 January 2017

Foreign players

Restricting the number of foreign players strictly to four per team, including a slot for a player from AFC countries. A team could use four foreign players on the field during each game including at least one player from the AFC country.

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	AFC Player	GCC Player	Former Players
Al-Khabourah	Noah Sadaoui	Mame Balla Diop[49]	Paulo Vitor Hinvaitt Matos
Al-Nahda	Ronir de Souza Gonçalves[50]	Ibrahim Basit[51]	Jean-Francois Feupa Mkamwa			Kipré Tchetche Luís Cláudio Carvalho da Silva Mohammed Boqshan
Al-Nasr	Samba Tounkara	Fallou Gallas Wade	Abderrazak Ben Tairi[52]	Mohammad-Esmail Nazari		Ferrán Tacón
Al-Oruba[53]	Zoumana Koné				Abdulwasea Al-Matari[54]	Waheed Oseni[55] Mamadou Fofana
Al-Rustaq	Sonny Karlsson	Cédric Mandjeck	Cédric Ayangma	Mohammad Fouad[56]
Al-Shabab	Lucas Gaúcho[57]	Fernando Evangelista dos Santos	Paa Ernest	Amro Jenyat		Mechac Koffi[58]
Al-Suwaiq	Kipré Tchetche	Mamadou Diagne	Milad Zeneyedpour[59]	Saif Salman[60][61]		Vedran Gerc[62][63] Fellipe Bertoldo
Dhofar	Admir Malkić[64]	Elias Maguri[65]	Lawson Bekui[66]	Tamer Haj Mohamad[67]		Abdoulaye Cissé[68][69]
Fanja[70]	Mrisho Ngasa	Daniel Lyanga	Nursultan Nst
Ja'lan
Muscat[71]	Vedran Gerc[72][73]	Mignane Diouf	Abdou Kader Fall	Saad Ahmad		Ahmed Abu Halawa
Oman[74][75]	Arthur Felix Da Silva	Philtzgerald Mbaka				John-Christophe Ayina Francisco Pizarro Anatoliy Vlasichev
Saham	Jildemar Dias Paixão	Abdoulaye Dieng		Maksimilian Fomin[76]		Oussou Konan Anicet Abdoulaye Koffi[77] Kim Sang-sik[78]
Sohar	Alin Stoica					Admir Malkic Babakar[79]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Dhofar (C)	26	15	6	5	44	27	+17	51	2018 AFC Cup group stage
2	Al-Shabab	26	13	9	4	42	27	+15	48
3	Al-Oruba	26	13	6	7	45	37	+8	45
4	Al-Nasr	26	10	9	7	31	30	+1	39
5	Fanja	26	10	7	9	42	40	+2	37
6	Al-Suwaiq	26	8	12	6	35	25	+10	36	Qualification to 2018 AFC Cup play-off round[a]
7	Sohar	26	9	8	9	36	36	0	35
8	Al-Nahda	26	9	7	10	33	33	0	34
9	Saham	26	9	7	10	39	45	−6	34
10	Muscat	26	7	10	9	36	36	0	31
11	Oman	26	8	7	11	32	36	−4	31
12	Al-Khabourah (R)	26	7	9	10	28	35	−7	30	Relegation Playoff
13	Ja'lan (R)	26	3	11	12	27	44	−17	20	Relegation to 2017–18 Oman First Division League
14	Al-Rustaq (R)	26	3	8	15	32	51	−19	17

Updated to match(es) played on 19 May 2017. Source: League Table
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Al-Suwaiq, winners of the 2016–17 Sultan Qaboos Cup played in the 2018 AFC Cup group stage

Results

Home \ Away	ALK	ALNH	ALN	ALO	ALR	ALSH	ALSU	DHO	FAN	JAL	MUS	OMA	SAH	SOH
Al-Khabourah		2–1	0–2	3–2	4–2	1–2	2–2	0–2	2–2	1–0	1–1	0–3	2–0	0–0
Al-Nahda	0–0		0–1	0–0	1–1	1–1	0–3	2–1	2–1	2–0	2–1	3–0	3–0	1–0
Al-Nasr	1–0	1–0		1–2	2–0	2–2	0–4	0–0	2–0	2–2	1–5	1–0	1–0	0–0
Al-Oruba	1–0	4–3	1–1		1–2	2–1	2–1	1–0	1–2	2–2	3–1	2–0	2–2	3–2
Al-Rustaq	3–1	2–3	2–2	1–2		0–0	1–1	1–2	2–2	1–2	2–1	1–5	0–3	2–3
Al-Shabab	3–0	1–0	3–2	2–1	1–1		1–1	3–0	4–3	1–0	0–1	1–0	1–0	0–2
Al-Suwaiq	1–1	2–1	0–0	3–1	2–0	1–1		2–1	0–1	0–0	2–2	0–1	4–1	0–2
Dhofar	1–1	1–0	2–1	1–1	1–0	2–2	2–0		3–0	4–2	2–1	3–1	4–1	2–1
Fanja	3–1	2–2	0–2	1–3	0–0	0–1	2–1	3–1		1–1	3–1	2–1	1–1	1–1
Ja'lan	0–0	0–1	3–3	0–1	2–1	1–4	1–1	1–1	1–3		0–2	0–0	1–2	2–1
Muscat	1–2	2–0	1–2	1–1	2–1	1–1	0–0	0–2	1–3	2–2		1–1	3–1	1–1
Oman	0–3	0–0	1–1	1–3	3–2	3–2	1–1	1–1	3–1	0–0	0–1		0–2	4–1
Saham	1–1	3–3	1–0	3–2	2–2	1–3	0–2	1–2	3–2	5–3	1–1	3–1		1–1
Sohar	1–0	4–2	1–0	3–1	3–2	1–1	1–1	1–3	0–3	3–1	2–2	1–2	0–1

Updated to match(es) played on 19 May 2017. Source: ^{[80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96][97][98]} Results
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Clubs season-progress

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26
Al-Khabourah	W	L	L	W	L	D	L	L	W	D	L	W	L	D	D	L	D	W	D	D	L	D	L	W	D	W
Al-Nahda	L	D	W	D	D	L	D	L	W	L	W	L	W	D	W	W	L	W	W	L	W	D	L	L	L	D
Al-Nasr	D	W	W	D	D	W	L	W	D	D	D	W	L	L	L	D	L	L	W	W	W	W	D	L	W	D
Al-Oruba	W	D	W	D	W	L	W	W	W	D	D	L	W	L	W	L	W	L	W	D	W	L	W	W	D	L
Al-Rustaq	L	D	L	D	W	L	D	L	D	D	W	D	L	W	L	L	D	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	D	L
Al-Shabab	D	W	W	D	W	W	D	L	W	D	W	D	W	W	W	W	D	W	L	W	D	W	L	L	D	D
Al-Suwaiq	L	L	L	D	W	D	D	D	L	W	D	D	D	D	L	W	W	W	D	W	D	W	W	L	D	D
Dhofar	W	D	W	W	D	W	W	W	D	D	L	W	L	W	W	L	L	W	W	D	W	W	L	W	W	D
Fanja	W	W	L	L	D	L	D	L	L	D	W	D	W	D	W	W	W	L	L	W	D	L	W	W	D	L
Ja'lan	L	D	L	L	L	D	D	D	D	D	L	L	W	D	L	L	W	L	L	D	D	L	D	L	D	W
Muscat	L	L	D	L	L	D	L	W	D	D	L	W	D	L	W	W	D	W	W	D	L	D	W	L	D	D
Oman	W	D	L	L	W	W	D	L	L	W	L	L	L	D	L	D	L	L	W	D	L	D	W	W	D	W
Saham	D	L	D	W	L	L	W	W	L	D	W	W	L	W	L	L	W	L	L	L	D	D	W	W	D	D
Sohar	D	W	W	W	L	W	D	W	D	L	D	L	W	L	D	W	L	W	L	L	D	D	L	W	L	D

Updated to match(es) played on 19 May 2017. Source: Clubs Season-Progress
W = Win; D = Draw; L = Lose

Relegation playoff

First leg

24 May 2017

14:15

Mirbat	1–0	Al-Khabourah
	Report

Salalah Sports Complex, Salalah

Second leg

28 May 2017

18:30

Al-Khabourah	1–1	Mirbat
	Report

Sohar Regional Sports Complex, Sohar

Mirbat won 2–1 on aggregate and got promoted for the 2017–18 season.

Season statistics

As of 19 May 2017^[99]

Top scorers Rank Scorer Club Goals 1 Essam Al-Barahi Al-Rustaq 16 2 Jean-Francois Feupa Mkamwa Al-Nahda 15 Mohammed Al-Ghassani Saham 3 Lucas Gaúcho Al-Shabab 13 Shawqi Al-Raqadi Fanja 4 Abdul Aziz Al-Muqbali Fanja 10 Samba Tounkara Al-Nasr Al-Munther Al-Alawi Oman Khalifa Al-Jahoori Sohar Lawson Bekui Dhofar

Top Omani Scorers Rank Scorer Club Goals 1 Essam Al-Barahi Al-Rustaq 16 2 Mohammed Al-Ghassani Saham 15 3 Shawqi Al-Raqadi Fanja 13 4 Abdulaziz Al-Muqbali Fanja 10 Al-Munther Al-Alawi Oman Khalifa Al-Jahoori Sohar

Hat-tricks

Player	Club	Against	Result	Date
Abdulaziz Al-Muqbali	Fanja	Ja'lan	3—1	17 September 2016[100]
Khalifa Al-Jahoori	Sohar	Al-Nahda	4—2	19 October 2016[101]
Lucas Gaúcho	Al-Shabab	Al-Khabourah	3—0	24 February 2017[102]
Omar Al-Malki	Al-Shabab	Fanja	4—3	27 April 2017[103]

Media coverage

Oman Professional League Media Coverage
Country	Television Channel	Matches
Oman	Oman Sports TV	4 Matches per round
Oman	Oman TV	3 Matches per round
Qatar	Al-Kass Sports Channel	1 Match per round

See also

• 2016 Oman Super Cup