Saudi Arabia kicks off its campaign in the AFC U-19 Championship with a tough clash against Iran at the Prince Mohammed Bin Fahd Stadium in Dammam, Friday. Governor of the Eastern Province, Prince Mohammed Bin Fahd, will inaugurate the championship. Prince Sultan Bin Fahd, General President of Youth Welfare, and his deputy, Prince Nawaf Bin Faisal, will also attend the ceremony. Also Friday, Japan plays Yemen and South Korea meets Syria while Iraq faces the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia's Brazilian coach Nelson Rodrigues announced his 23-strong squad for the championship late on Thursday. Nelson decided to leave out Kahled Al-Aboud, Abdul Rahman Al-Shehri and Fahd Al-Yamani from the side, which has been training for the event for the last seven months. “If I have the authority, I would list their names in my squad as they did very well during our long training camp, but this step has been taken under the regulations of the championship,” Nelson told a press conference Thursday. In his last training session ahead of the Iran clash, Nelson allowed media in for 20 minutes. Mohammed Al-Sefri was resting after feeling pain in his foot. Saudi defender Mosa Ismail is likely to start against Iran Friday after recovering from his injury. Besides the host team Saudi Arabia, 15 Asian teams, divided into four groups, are participating in the championship which will end on Nov. 14. The top two teams from each group move into the quarterfinals and the top four teams will qualify for the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Egypt in 2009. Saudi squad - Goalkeepers: Hassan Shian, Abdullah Al-Sudairi and Basim Al-Baqai. Defenders: Radwan Al-Mosa, Sultan Al-Bishi, Abdullah Al-Dosari, Hadi Yahay, Basim Al-Mountasheri, Waleed Al-Mutairi, Mosa Ismail and Yousif Kamis. Midfielders: M. Al-Qarni, M. Abu Saban, Abdul Mohsen Asiri, Waleed Ba-kashwain, Nawaf Al-Abed,Yahay Al-Shehri and Mohammed Al-Sefri. Strikers: Saud Homoud, Salman Al-Faraj, Ahmed Al-Za'aq ,Omar Khudari and Abdul Raheem Jizawi. __
