Playing in soaring UAE temperatures and humidity is a heated subject in the AGL

Weather, or rather high heat and humidity, at the start of the Arabian Gulf League season is no laughing matter for the players, coaches or referees.

High heat and humidity make it easy for players such as Ismail Al Hammadi of Al Ahli and Mauricio Ramos of Sharjah to work up a sweat. Satish Kumar / The National

Dawood Ali, the Al Shabab winger, looked frazzled as he trudged towards his car, almost an hour after the end of a 3-2 win over Dibba in their Arabian Gulf Cup opener.

A fan, probably a regular, greeted him with a warm hug before complaining about Ali’s lack of response to his enthusiastic screams as the player left the pitch for the comforts of their air-conditioned changing rooms.

“I am sorry, habibi,” Ali said. “I just could not see anything. My eyes were filled with sweat.”

Both laughed, but the weather at the start of this season has been no laughing matter for the players, coaches or referees.

The season kicked off with the Super Cup on August 15 at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium in the capital. The mercury, according to weather.com, peaked at 46°C in Abu Dhabi that day and the humidity was unbearable.

“The weather really killed us,” Omar Abdulrahman of Al Ain said after the match. “I just cannot understand the reason for the establishment of the match at this time of the year, when we are struggling to breathe.”

Officials of the UAE Football Association appeared to have little sympathy for the players and brushed aside Abdulrahman’s complaints. They pointed towards the six goals scored in that game.

Officials also said Emiratis are used to this weather. However, less than a week later, on September 21, Al Wasl’s Hazza Salem had to spend 24 hours in hospital after collapsing on the pitch due to the heat in a 2-1 win at Al Jazira. Abu Dhabi experienced a high of 43°C that day.

A week later, Salem’s coach, Gabriel Calderon, criticised the scheduling as well as officials who make decisions sitting inside “air-conditioned offices”.

“I’d like to know which person decided that we should play in this weather,” Calderon said after Wasl’s 2-0 victory over Al Shaab in their Arabian Gulf Cup opener on August 28 at home. Dubai had a high of 40°C that day and the humidity was in excess of 90 per cent.

“Do we have to wait for a player or referee to die to bring about change? This is no weather for playing football. It’s dangerous. God forbid anything will happen. You have 14 teams and all year to play this competition, so why start now?”

Clubs and coaches across the Arabian Gulf League have echoed similar sentiments since, but Dr Magdi Iskandar, a member of the FA’s medical committee and vice president of West Asia’s association of sports medicine professionals, said he does not believe playing in the August heat could lead to such dire consequences.

“From a medical and health point of view, there is no danger to the players playing in high temperatures and humidity as long as we have breaks in the game allowing players to drink water and replenish their body fluids,” he said in an interview with Arabic daily Emarat Al Youm.

Dr Iskandar also said that if there was any risk to the players, Fifa would have laws preventing the conduct of matches in extreme weather.

Instead, Fifa directives state if the temperature is in excess of 32°C, there should be a break after 30 minutes of play in each half to allow the players to drink water.

The Pro League Committee have been following that directive, but Dr Mustafa Al Hashimi, chairman of the sports medicine committee at the FA, has promised to look into the concerns of club officials.

Al Hashimi said the FA plans to organise a conference next year to discuss the effects of playing in high temperatures and present their findings to Fifa for further instructions.

“We will invite specialist doctors, coaches, trainers, administrators and other stakeholders for the seminar and listen to all the different views on the subject,” he said.

Some club officials would prefer a simpler solution – start the season in mid-September or later to reduce the avoid playing in this heat.

“We need to be careful,” said Caio Junior, the Shabab coach. “I know we are professionals, but we are humans.”

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