Every January for the past four years, Fifa has released a report covering international transfers of professional players.
Last year, the UAE featured prominently in the report for 2013, having spent US$47 million (Dh172.6m) on 42 internationals.
Counterpoint: Arabian Gulf League foreigners help raise a tide lifting all boats
The country was the biggest spender on expatriate footballers in Asia and 13th in the world, and spending increased by 88 per cent over 2012. There must have been a spike in that figure during the following 12 months, as well, with players such as Mirko Vucinic, Miroslav Stoch, Jonathan Pitroipa, Jucilei da Silva, Manuel Lanzini and Felipe Caicedo coming to the Arabian Gulf League.
According to Asian Football Confederation (AFC) estimates, Arabian Gulf League (AGL) clubs spend around Dh1.2 billion annually, and about 40 per cent of that goes towards paying the salaries of foreign players. During the past 10 years, the spending has reportedly multiplied 12 times. But what has been achieved by all that spending?
When was the last (and only) time the UAE qualified for the World Cup? In 1990. When was the last (and only) time the UAE reached the final of the Asian Cup? In 1996.
When was the last time a UAE club won the Asian title? In 2003, when Al Ain beat Thailand’s BEC Tero Sasana. Al Ain are also the last UAE team to reach the final of the continental championship – losing to Saudi club Al Ittihad in 2005 – and the only Emirati club to reach the last four of the tournament since, in 2014.
In the latest world club rankings, Al Ain do not feature in the top 100. Three Saudi clubs (No 76 Al Hilal, No 97 Al Ahli and No 100 Al Nassr) are there, but Al Ain are a modest No 122 (sixth in Asia). Clubs from Congo DR (No 74 TP Mazembe and No 112 Vita Club) and Sudan (Al Merrikh at No 106) are ranked higher. The second UAE club in the rankings is Al Jazira at No 460 (41st in Asia).
The AGL, meanwhile, is ranked 50th by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics on its list of the strongest national leagues in the world for 2014, below the likes of Kazakhstan and Kuwait.
Given these facts, some of the country’s top names in football are questioning the spending on foreign players and the number of foreign players allowed.
Mahdi Ali, the national team coach, is one of those who does not see the merit of having four foreign players. His view is supported by officials at top clubs such as Al Ain and Al Wahda, as well as former UAE internationals such as Adnan Al Talyani.
“I believe we should reduce the number of foreign players to two or maximum three,” Mahdi Ali said last year. “It will reduce cost and the clubs will then focus on bringing (foreign) players at the highest level. It will also mean more chances for the Emirati players.
“Most of the strikers at the clubs are foreign players and the Emiratis rarely get an opportunity to play. The youngsters coming through the ranks are now refusing to play in that position because they know they will not get a chance in the first team.”
The strikers are not the only ones suffering. Habib Fardan, previously a standout at Al Nasr, has become a benchwarmer at Al Ahli. With Luis Jimenez, a former Chile international, being Ahli’s Asian player and players such as Everton Ribeiro and Oussama Assaidi alongside him in the midfield, players such as Fardan, Ismail Al Hammadi and Majed Hassan are struggling for playing time.
Ali Mabkhout could have been in a similar position at Jazira, if not for Walter Zenga’s belief in the Emirati striker. The former Italy goalkeeper gave him the confidence and opportunities to blossom into the player that he is now, holding his own in a team that includes Vucinic and Pitroipa.
Mahdi Ali’s grievances are legitimate, but supporters of the status quo say foreign players make the league watchable. There is no evidence of that happening in the stands, and reducing the number from four to three may not possibly make a huge difference.
Others will argue about quality and how the presence of four foreign players raises the level of a team. Al Ain started with all four of their foreign players in just four games this season and still won the league with a few rounds to spare. Emirates started 19 matches with all four foreign players and they finished 10th.
It is quality that matters, not quantity, and it is time to revisit the “three-plus-one” foreign rule, especially since six AGL clubs had “naturalised” Asians on their roster this season.
If there are not enough quality born-in-Asia players around, why not trust Emiratis? The UAE are the fifth-ranked team in Asia and their players can only get better playing against the best of Asia in the Champions League.
arizvi@thenational.ae
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