The director of the Syrian national teams told Okaz: Al-Somah is out of the picture by a technical decision... but a return is possible
Syrian national teams director Muwaffaq Fathallah revealed the reason for excluding Al-Hazm striker Omar Al-Somah from the "Qasioun Eagles" squad for the match against Afghanistan. Syria will face Afghanistan on March 31st in the 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers at Prince Abdullah bin Jalawi Stadium in Al-Ahsa.
Al-Somah's absence was a "technical decision"
Fathallah told Okaz newspaper in an exclusive interview: “The exclusion of Omar Al-Somah is a technical decision; the coach has the final say regarding player selection.” He added that the Syrian Football Association would not stand in the way of Al-Somah’s return should the coaching staff request his recall.
Details of the crisis
The head of the Syrian Football Association, Firas Tit, had previously confirmed that he had contacted Omar Al-Somah to represent the Syrian national team in the Arab Cup tournament held at the end of last year in Qatar, but the player denied evading joining the “Qasioun Eagles”, indicating that he would respond at the appropriate time.
For its part, private sources told Okaz that Al-Somah’s absence from the Arab Cup was the result of a “misunderstanding” between the player and some of the federation’s officials, as he was asked to do something before joining and he did it, but he was surprised by the officials’ backtracking on the agreement, which put him in an embarrassing situation, so he objected to that, which aroused the displeasure of the officials who felt that his method of objection was not appropriate.
