Qatar U-17 coach Joao Pereira (second left) addresses a press conference on the eve of GCC Championship yesterday. Picture: Othman Iraqi

By Sports Reporter/Doha

Qatar’s under-17 team will vie for their first GCC Under-17 Championship football title, when the tournament kicks-off at the Aspire Dome from today.
Qatar are in Group B along with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, while Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain have been drawn into Group A. Oman will clash with Kuwait in the opener, which will kick off today at 4pm. The hosts play their first match against four-time champions Saudi Arabia, the most successful team in the competition, today at 6: 45pm.  
Aspire will host all 22 matches, with the semifinals to be held on August 27 while the third-place play-off and final are scheduled for August 29.
Portuguese Joao Pereira, who was coach at the Aspire Academy, and took over the U-17 Qatar team only in July was confident his players will do well in the competition. The boys featured in a five-nation tournament in Mexico earlier this month as part of the preparation for the GCC championship.
Though they lost to Mexico 0-5 in one of the matches, Pereira hoped that his team will fare better in the familiar home conditions.“In terms of preparedness, the tournament in Mexico served our purpose as the boys had a good workout. We should not make much of the loss to Mexico as the conditions were entirely different as we played in 2,000 metres above sea level. It was a good experience for us. In youth football you always want to play for victory, but it’s not easy.

‘not yet professional’
“These boys are 15 and not 21. They are not yet professional but they will get better with experience. They have to keep learning. And they did learn a lot in Mexico, which should help them in this competition,” said Pereira.
The Portuguese called the GCC Championship as an important tournament but he said his aim was to qualify for the Asian championship and World Cup, both to be held in India in 2016 and 2017 respectively. “GCC Championship will gives us a sense of perspective to where we are as a team. The other teams are equally good and it will be interesting to see how Qatar performs against them,” he added.
On the first match against Saudi Arabia, Pereira said: “They are a very strong team. The generally tend to do well in these sort of competitions and it will be a good test for our boys. We are very confident going into the tournament and will attempt to win the championship.”
Tournament Factbox
Group A: Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain
Group B: Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE

Fixtures
Aug 20
Oman vs Kuwait 4pm
Saudi Arabia vs Qatar 6:45pm

Aug 22
Saudi Arabia vs UAE 4pm
Oman vs Bahrain 6:45pm

Aug 24
Qatar vs UAE 4pm
Kuwait vs Bahrain 6:45pm

Aug 26
5/6th place match – Group A 3rd vs Group B 3rd 4pm

Aug 27
Semifinal 1 - Group A 1st vs Group A 2nd 4pm
Semifinal 2 - Group B 1st vs Group B 2nd 4pm

Aug 29
3/4th place 4pm
Final 7pm