Dhofar Sports, Cultural and Social Club ( ar, نادي ظفار الرياضي الثقافي الاجتماعي; commonly known as Dhofar Club, nicknamed locally as ''Al-Zaeem'', or "The Leader(s)" because of their great success, or just plainly as Dhofar) is an Omani sports club based in

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 cit ...

, Oman. The club is currently playing in the

Oman Professional League The Oman Professional League ( ar, دوري المحترفين عمان; known as the '' Omantel Professional League'' for sponsorship reasons), previously known as the Omantel Elite League, is the top division of the Oman Football Association, ...

, top division of Omani football. Their home ground is

Al-Saada Stadium The Al-Saada Stadium ( ar, أستاد السعادة), also known as Al-Saada Sports Complex ( ar, مجمع السعادة الرياضي) is a government owned multi-use stadium in the Al-Saada district of Salalah, Oman. The stadium is used o ...

, but they also recognize the older

Salalah Sports Complex Salalah Sports Complex ( ar, مجمع صلالة الرياضي) also known as The Youth Complex ( ar, المجمع الشبابي), is a government owned multi-purpose stadium in the ''Auwqad'' district of Salalah, Oman. It is currently used mostl ...

as their home ground. Both stadiums are government owned, but they also own their own personal stadium and sports equipment, as well as their own training facilities.

History

The idea for the foundation of a club in Salalah began in the 1960s resulting in various meetings among the town's people. The names considered for the new club were Al-Ahlia,

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, Leb ...

, Al-Arabi, and Al-Shoala, but the name to be chosen for the club was to be "Al-Shaab", a name literally translating to "The People", and in 1968 the new club was finally founded. Two years later the young club merged with the neighboring club Al-Shoala from the Dahariz district of Salalah and was re-founded as Dhofar in 1970 appointing Salim Al-Kathiri as the club's first president, a position which was held by him till 1975. Officially, the club was founded on 20 May 1972 and was registered on 26 June 2002. Dhofar is the most successful club in the

Omani League The Oman Professional League ( ar, دوري المحترفين عمان; known as the '' Omantel Professional League'' for sponsorship reasons), previously known as the Omantel Elite League, is the top division of the Oman Football Association, ...

with a total of eleven championships and ten Sultan Qaboos Cup titles to their name. Dhofar have also reached the final of the 1995–1996

Gulf Club Champions Cup 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 peni ...

, only losing to Saudi giants, Al-Nassr. The club has never been relegated to second division. They have a long lasting rivalry with neighbours Al-Nasr S.C. Although being relatively younger in foundation than many other Arab clubs, which generally were founded in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, Dhofar has been ranked as the 30th most successful club title-wise in the

Arab World The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western A ...

with a total of 19 titles. Dhofar, along with the neighbours Al-Nasr have been generally labelled as the front runners of the

, but as seen in the recent seasons, both the clubs performed horribly with Dhofar losing many games, and not going far in the

Sultan Qaboos Cup The Sultan Qaboos Cup ( ar, كأس السلطان قابوس), also known as the HM's Cup, is Oman's premier knockout tournament for men's football. It was officially created in 1972 and the champions of that edition were Al-Ahli. Shortly known a ...

, along with Al-Nasr who even got relegated in the

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

season. The club in the 2009–10 season made a season comeback with their performances in the Sultan Qaboos Cup by reaching the final against a lower-leveled

Saham Saham ( ar, صحم) is a coastal town in the Al Batinah Region, in northeastern Oman. It is located at about and has a population of 85,010 (2003 census). Saham is a fishing and a farming town between Al Khaboura and Sohar. See also * List of c ...

. Saham won the match 7–6 on penalties after the match had ended 2–2 at normal time. Dhofar also received second place in the 2009–10 Omani League losing only a few points short of first-time winners, Al-Suwaiq, and in the process qualified for the

2011 AFC Cup The 2011 AFC Cup was the eighth edition of the AFC Cup, a football competition organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for clubs from "developing countries" in Asia. Allocation of entries per association *2 teams to qualify from eac ...

. After the end of the second-place finish earlier in the 2009–10 season, Dhofar made major signings and re-signings to boost the club's performance in future competitions. Then in the next season, they were placed 4th in the league table securing 30 points from 22 games. Dhofar lost all its last 5 matches in the

season. It further went down in the 2011–12 season and was placed 12th in the league. But at the end of the same season they also won their 8th Sultan Qaboos Cup title by winning 1–0 against neighbours Al-Ittihad. In the previous season of the

, Dhofar was ranked 6th in the league. This was one of their worst performances in the top division football. In 2013, Dhofar appointed Dragan Talajić of

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

as their manager. Before the beginning of the 2014-15 Oman Professional League season, on 4 July 2014 the club appointed Romanian manager Petre Gigiu who had managed

Al-Seeb Club Al-Seeb Club ( ar, نادي السيب; also known locally as ''The Emperor'', or "Master of the Clubs", or simply as Al-Seeb or Seeb Club) is an Omani professional football club based in Al-Seeb, that competes in the Oman Professional League, ...

and

Sur SC Sur or SUR or El Sur (Spanish "the South") may refer to: Geography * Sur or Shur (Bible), the wilderness of Sur/Shur from the Book of Exodus * Sur (river), a river of Bavaria, Germany * Súr, a village in Hungary * Sur, a district of the city of ...

in the

2013–14 Oman Professional League The 2013–14 Oman Professional League (known as the '' Omantel Professional League'' for sponsorship reasons) is the 38th edition of the top football league in Oman. The Oman Football League got the seal of approval of a professional league on 1 ...

. His first triumph as a manager of the club came in the pre-season preparations of the club when he led his side to win the 2014 Baniyas SC International Tournament winning two matches, 2–1 against

United Arab Emirates national under-23 football team The United Arab Emirates national under-23 football team represents United Arab Emirates in association football and is administered by the United Arab Emirates Football Association The United Arab Emirates Football Association (UAEFA; ar, ا� ...

and 1–0 against

Bahraini Premier League The Bahraini Premier League is the main football competition in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Currently known as the Nasser bin Hamad Premier League, the first season was held in 1957. The winners of the domestic championship qualify for the AFC Cup. ...

club

Hidd SCC Al-Hidd Sports and Cultural Club ( ar, نادي الحد الرياضي الثقافي) is a Bahraini football club based in Al Hidd, Muharraq Island. They currently compete in the top division of Bahraini football league. Also club have Futsa ...

Other sports

Although being mainly known for their football, Dhofar S.C.S.C. like many other clubs in Oman, have not only football in their list, but also

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

, volleyball, handball, basketball, badminton and

squash Squash may refer to: Sports * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling * Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...

. They also have a youth football team competing in the Omani Youth league.

Crest and colours

Like the

Oman national football team The Oman national football team ( ar, منتخب عُمان لكرة القدم) represents Oman in men's international football and is controlled by the Oman Football Association. Although the team was officially founded in 1978, the squad wa ...

, Dhofar S.C.S.C. have also long-chosen red as the color to represent them, varying themselves from neighbors Al-Ittihad (Green), Al-Nasr S.C.S.C. (Blue) and

Salalah SC Salalah Sport Club ( ar, نادي صلالة الرياضي; also known locally as ''Al-Nimoor'', or "The Tiger(s)", or just plainly as Salalah) is an Omani football club based in Salalah, Oman. Their home ground is Al-Saada Stadium, but they ...

(Blue)

kit Kit may refer to: Places *Kitt, Indiana, US, formerly Kit * Kit, Iran, a village in Mazandaran Province * Kit Hill, Cornwall, England People * Kit (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Kit (surname) Animals * Young animals: ...

s. Historically, they usually wore a red

jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependencies, Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west F ...

with white

shorts Shorts are a garment worn over the pelvic area, circling the waist and splitting to cover the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to the knees but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" because they ...

, but after the 1990s they began to wear a full red kit. Over the years, they have had numerous kit providers, ranging from Puma to Lotto and Grand Sport. As of now,

Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine given ...

provides them with kits. Currently, Oasis Grace L.L.C. is featured on the team's shirt. They have also had many different sponsors over the years, but rarely featured a shirt sponsor (only during notable matches such as the

final). Omani newspaper, Al-Watan, Dhofar Insurance, Al Makan Cafe and Bank Muscat have all been featured on their kit at one point in their history.

Honours

National titles

(11): :*Winners 1982–83, 1984–85, 1989–90, 1991–92,

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since th ...

, 1993–94, 1998–99, 2000–01, 2004–05, 2016–17, 2018–19 :*Runners-up 1987–88, 2002–03, 2007–08, 2009–10, 2019–20 *

(10): :*Winners

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrati ...

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Syst ...

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major off ...

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school s ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

, 2006, 2011, 2019–20,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

:*Runners-up

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast As ...

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

* Oman Professional League Cup (2): :*Winners

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

, 2018–19 :*Runners-up 2014–15 * Oman Super Cup (3): :*Winners 1999, 2017, 2019 :*Runners-up 2000, 2005, 2012

Youth and friendly

Gulf Club Champions Cup U-17 A gulf is a large inlet from the ocean into the landmass, typically with a narrower opening than a bay, but that is not observable in all geographic areas so named. The term gulf was traditionally used for large highly-indented navigable bodies ...

(1): :*Winners 1994 * Bani Yas International Tournament (1): :*Winners 2014

Club performance: international competitions

AFC competitions

Asian Club Championship The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition ...

: 2 appearances :*

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...

: Qualifying round :* 1996–97 : First round * Asian Cup Winners' Cup : 1 appearance :* 1991–92 : Second round *

AFC Cup The AFC Cup is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Under its current rules, the competition is played primarily between clubs from nations that did not receive direct qualifying ...

: 6 appearances :*

: Group stage :*

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...

: Group stage :*

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment ...

: Group stage :*

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

: Group stage :*

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in ...

: Group stage :*

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeyp ...

: Group stage

UAFA competitions

Arab Champions League The Arab Club Champions Cup ( ar, كأس العرب للأندية الأبطال, french: Ligue des Champions Arabe) is an annual regional club football competition organised by the Union of Arab Football Associations (UAFA) and contested by eli ...

: 1 appearance :* 2008–09 : Round of 32 :* 2019–20 : Round of 32 *

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 peni ...

: 10 appearances :*

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C., Un ...

: 6th Position :*

: 3rd Position :*

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the ...

: 4th Position :*

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson Ma ...

: 6th Position :*

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...

: Runners-up :*

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanistan ...

: 3rd Position :*

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains independence from Indonesia and ...

: 5th Position :*

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing ...

: Group stage :* 2011 : Quarter-Finals

Players

First team squad

Personnel

Technical staff

Management

Presidential history

Below is the official presidential history of Dhofar S.C.S.C., from when Salim Annou Al-Kathiri took over at the club in 1970, until the present day.History of Dhofar's presidents (bottom of page)
/ref>

References

External links

Dhofar S.C.S.C. Profile at Soccerway.comDhofar S.C.S.C. Profile at Goalzz.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dhofar Club Football clubs in Oman Oman Professional League Salalah Association football clubs established in 1970 1970 establishments in Oman