The UAE national team football coach Mahdi Ali could barely contain his frustration after his men slipped to a 4-0 defeat to Uzbekistan on Tuesday night in a friendly at Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. He blamed their lacklustre performance on a "shameful" absence of fans at the ground for the second time in a week. The UAE's previous friendly, against Australia, had been played before a near-empty stadium last Friday. "The Australians had more support than us," he rued.
In a football-crazy nation like the UAE, such a lack of enthusiasm is surprising, especially when the national team is considered to be on the up and ticket prices are low. So what went wrong?
The answer might lie in the fact that the national team’s games are rarely properly promoted. Consider what happens when the marketing people do get involved: only a couple of seasons ago Al Jazira, the team that plays its home matches at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium, took to the field each week before capacity crowds who were tempted to the ground by the promise of a family atmosphere, free entry and in a blaze of publicity ensuring that fans knew well in advance who was playing and when. Fans will show up to support their team, but they need to be kept better informed.
