Al Ain’s preparations for Tuesday’s crucial Asian Champions League clash with Al Ittihad have been thrown into disarray, with the venue for the match being switched hours before the UAE club were to leave for Saudi Arabia.
The Garden City side, 2-0 up from last week's quarter-final first leg, were due to fly to Jeddah by private jet on Sunday evening, as the game was to be played at the city's King Abdullah Sport City.
However, the Asian Football Confederation have granted Ittihad’s late request to move the fixture to the King Abdulaziz Sport City in Mecca – the Saudi club claim the stadium in Jeddah is not ready to host the fixture - meaning Al Ain have had to hastily recalibrate their travel arrangements.
By playing in Mecca, Al Ain’s non-Muslim players would not be able to make the journey directly from Jeddah through the holy city and on to the stadium, so the entire squad were instead to fly to Ta’if and then travel from there to Mecca.
Al Ain had already booked their hotel in Jeddah, located approximately 10 minutes from King Abdullah Sport City. Now, they will presumably have to travel from a base in Ta’if to Mecca, a journey that could stretch to more than 90 kilometres. The 2003 champions took the same route when they played Ittihad in the group stages in March, with Ittihad winning that encounter 2-1.
Both the AFC and Al Ain were unavailable for comment early Sunday evening, although that the AFC’s match commissioner, thought to be Indian Gautam Kar, could allow the venues to be moved at such short notice will clearly have rankled Al Ain.
As per AFC regulations, Zlatko Dalic, the Al Ain coach, and a member of his playing staff are obliged to meet the media in the host city at Monday’s post-match press briefing.
The match, which could see Al Ain progress to the semi-finals of the Champions League for the first time in nine years, will be played behind closed doors, following crowd trouble that marred Ittihad’s last-16 tie with compatriots Al Shabab last May.
jmcauley@thenational.ae
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