Bert van Marwijk announces UAE squad for 2022 World Cup qualifiers

UAE SQUAD

Goalkeepers: Ali Khaseif, Fahad Al Dhanhani, Mohammed Al Shamsi, Adel Al Hosani

Defenders: Bandar Al Ahbabi, Shaheen Abdulrahman, Walid Abbas, Mahmoud Khamis, Mohammed Barghash, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Hassan Al Mahrami, Yousef Jaber, Salem Rashid, Mohammed Al Attas, Alhassan Saleh

Midfielders: Ali Salmeen, Abdullah Ramadan, Abdullah Al Naqbi, Majed Hassan, Yahya Nader, Ahmed Barman, Abdullah Hamad, Khalfan Mubarak, Khalil Al Hammadi, Tahnoun Al Zaabi, Harib Abdallah, Mohammed Jumah, Yahya Al Ghassani

Forwards: Fabio De Lima, Caio Canedo, Ali Saleh, Ali Mabkhout, Sebastian Tagliabue, Zayed Al Ameri

UAE manager Bert van Marwijk has announced his provisional squad for next month’s 2022 World Cup qualifiers in Dubai.

The national team resume their Group G campaign on June 3 against Malaysia, their first of four matches in 13 days. All fixtures take place in the emirate following the Asian Football Confederation’s decision to use centralised venues for the continent’s postponed qualifiers.

The majority of the UAE squad will meet in Dubai on Saturday – players from Shabab Al Ahli, Al Nasr and Al Wahda will join later given their upcoming club commitments – with a friendly against Jordan planned for May 24. The camp runs until May 31.

Van Marwijk named his 34-man squad on Tuesday, highlighted by the return of Al Ain midfielder Ahmed Barman and Al Wasl forward Ali Saleh, while promising Shabab Al Ahli youngster Harib Abdallah and Wahda counterpart Abdullah Hamad have also been included. Al Ain goalkeeper Khalid Essa represents a notable absentee.

Meanwhile, Ahmed Khalil and Omar Abdulrahman, the 2015 and 2016 Asian player of the year respectively, continue to be unavailable for selection. Neither player, who both currently ply their trade at Shabab Al Ahli, has featured through injury since Van Marwijk returned as UAE manager in December. The squad is expected to be trimmed following Sunday's President's Cup final.

The UAE are currently fourth in Group G in the second round of qualification, five points off leaders Vietnam, although they hold a game in hand over the other four teams in the pool. After Malaysia, the national team face second-placed Thailand on June 7, then bottom side Indonesia four days later before concluding their campaign against Vietnam on June 15.

All the group’s outstanding fixtures – there remain eight matches to be played – will take place at either Wasl’s Zabeel Stadium or Nasr’s Al Maktoum Stadium.

Only the group winners are guaranteed to advance to the third and final round, alongside the four best runners-up from the eight groups. The UAE have only once previously appeared at a World Cup, in 1990.

As was reported earlier this month, the Football Association is assessing the return of fans to the venues for the qualifiers. The President's Cup final, hosted by Al Ain's Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, will be open to full vaccinated spectators at 30 per cent capacity. It marks the first time since February last year that a professional football fixture has welcomed fans.

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The Travel Diaries of Albert Einstein The Far East, Palestine, and Spain, 1922 – 1923
Editor Ze’ev Rosenkranz
Princeton

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Need to know

Unlike other mobile wallets and payment apps, a unique feature of eWallet is that there is no need to have a bank account, credit or debit card to do digital payments.

Customers only need a valid Emirates ID and a working UAE mobile number to register for eWallet account.

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Sand storm

Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
Travel distance: Limited
Source: Open desert areas with strong winds

Dust storm

Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
Duration: Can linger for days
Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
Source: Can be carried from distant regions

Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.