Arabian Gulf League: Mass resignation among Al Wasl board members

Poor results lead to the resignation of the Al Wasl board headed by Abdullah Hareb and Rashid Belhoul is favourite to step in, reports Ahmed Rizvi.

The members of the Al Wasl board, headed by Abdullah Hareb, stepped down en masse on Friday, a day after the team suffered a 2-0 defeat at Sharjah, left. Mutawakkil Mubarak / Al Ittihad

DUBAI // Al Wasl's stuttering season has suffered another blow with the club's board tendering their resignations and leaving their plans of strengthening the team during this winter transfer window in disarray.

The members of the club’s board, headed by Abdullah Hareb, stepped down en masse on Friday, a day after the team suffered a 2-0 defeat at Sharjah. That was their third loss in four matches since a stunning 2-1 win over Arabian Gulf League leaders Al Ahli in the 10th round.

Hector Cuper’s men have managed just one point since that victory and are languishing in 10th on the points table. The club’s fans had been growing increasingly impatient with team’s performance and their disillusionment has eventually forced the officials to take responsibility and step down.

Sheikh Ahmed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the president of the club, has accepted the resignations and the executive management of the club and the Al Wasl Football Company will be running the affairs of the club till the new board is put in place in the coming days.

“We have decided to leave our positions for people who can lead the club to better places,” Hareb said after the surprise decision. “We have not been able to achieve the results worthy of a club as big as Al Wasl and it is best to make for new faces to lead the ship. We wish the new council all the best and they will get our full support in their mission.”

According to club sources, Rashid Belhoul, chairman of the club’s board when the team won the league and President’s Cup double in 2006-07, is a favourite to return to a job he held from 2003 to 2009.

“He has an impressive resume,” said the source. “He is the head of the last board to win a domestic trophy and with the club desperately looking to climb back and regain their position among the top clubs in the country, he could be the best candidate.”

Since that domestic double seven years ago, Wasl have not finished higher than fifth on the points table in the league and have progressed to the last-four of the President’s Cup twice; they have a chance of making that stage this season, but will need to beat Al Ain in the quarterfinal on Monday.

Before stepping down, the outgoing management announced their first Emirati deal of the winter transfer window, bringing in Al Dhafra defender Hassan Zahran on a three and a half year contract.

There is no clarity on the position of the club’s foreign players though. The management had decided to retain only Andre Senghor and allow Mariano Donda and Milan Susak to leave. Moroccan defender Abdelfettah Boukhriss has returned home to FUS de Rabat.

Argentine playmaker Juan Emmanuel Culio, who spent the first half of the season at Spanish club Deportivo La Coruna, has arrived and the club is expected to announce a six-month deal with the 30-year-old.

However, talks with Turkish defender Yalsin Ayhan, captain of the currently third-placed team in the league Kasimpasa, has hit rough weather, with club sources indicating they might not be interested in the 31-year-old after securing the services of Zahran.

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