DUBAI // The Pro League Committee (PLC) is set to announce a rejigged calendar for the new season by the end of this week following the postponement of December’s Gulf Cup of Nations in Kuwait.
The domestic football season was scheduled to start on August 15 with the Super Cup match between Arabian Gulf League champions Al Ain and the President’s Cup winners Al Nasr, while the league was to kick off four days later with Al Ahli taking on Fujairah. The remaining Round 1 fixtures would have been played out during the proceeding two days.
The league would have then gone on a break until September 11 as the UAE national team play two 2018 World Cup qualifiers during this period — against Malaysia on September 3 and Palestine on September 9.
There would have been two further stoppages of around 20 days each to allow the UAE to prepare for the World Cup qualifiers against Saudi Arabia (October 8), East Timor (November 12) and Malaysia (November 17) before a month-long break for the Gulf Cup, which was originally scheduled to be held in Kuwait between December 21 and January 3.
Now, with the Gulf Cup postponed by a year to 2016, with the Kuwaiti Football Association saying it needed more time to carry out maintenance on stadiums, the proposed break in the AGL schedule in December becomes redundant and the PLC are due to announce a new schedule, which would see the season start with the Arabian Gulf Cup, the domestic cup competition, on August 30. The Super Cup would then be held on either September 14 or 15 before the league kicks off on September 21.
The PLC will be consulting with the clubs and the national team chiefs in the coming days before announcing the new calendar.
"We will take the views of our partners and make a formal announcement no later than Thursday," Hamad bin Ngerat Amiri, head of the PLC's technical committee, told Al Ittihad, the Arabic-language sister newspaper of The National.
“We had already prepared an alternate plan in the event of the postponement of the Gulf Cup, so it is ready. But we need to work in co-ordination with the different actors associated with us, our partners in the system, and, of course, we need to make sure we follow the proper administrative procedures in making such an important decision.”
Al Nasr, who are preparing for the 2015/16 season at a training camp in Germany, yesterday expressed their support for the decision to reschedule the start of the league. The news will likely be welcomed by the players and fans alike, with an extra month passing to avoid playing and watching in the soaring August UAE heat.
"We will support any decision that the football federation takes in the larger interest of UAE football," Abdullah bu Amim, the chief executive of Nasr, told The National. "The interests of the national team and UAE football are paramount, and we are always with the federation on this issue.
“So we are OK with the decision and we have absolutely no reservations. Its something that has to be done because of what has happened. We have always co-operated with the football federation and we will continue to do so. We stand united with them and the national team.”
The later start, however, will mean the 14 Arabian Gulf League teams will have to redraw their preseason plans, but Bu Amim said the disruption should be minimal.
“We will sit down with the coach and the technical team and see how best we can utilise this extra one month for the team’s preparations,” he said.
“Until now, we have not received anything official. Once we receive the new schedule from the federation, we will sit down and come up with a Plan B.”
Obaid Hubaitha, the Al Shabab team manager, has also welcomed the delay to give his team more time to prepare for the new season.
“I believe it’s good for us. It will give us more time to prepare and be ready for our first match,” he said by telephone from the team’s preseason camp in the Netherlands.
“It is also an opportunity for the boys to play a few official matches in Arabian Gulf Cup, especially our new players, and help them adapt with the team.
“So, yes, it’s good for us since we are one of the last teams to start the pre-season.”
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