Thursday cover: The great Arabian Gulf League expat debate

The National's Sport cover for the Wednesday, May 14 issue, featuring the foreign contingent of the Arabian Gulf League.

Paul Oberjuerge and Ahmed Rizvi debate the merits of the money spent and places allocated to expats at AGL clubs, with Paul in favour and Ahmed against.

Argues Ahmed:

“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.”

In sum, he writes: “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.”

Meanwhile, Paul counters:

“The case in favour of expatriates in the Arabian Gulf League is not hard to make.

“They bring the AGL a cadre of hardened professionals who raise standards across the board, they generate much of the attention surrounding the league, and they score two-thirds of the goals.

“Finding men who can put a ball into a net is the most difficult task in football. It becomes harder by far when the domestic player pool is as small as it is in the UAE – some 7,000 registered players from a citizenry of barely 1 million.”

And concluding:

“The league and its expats create the backdrop for the development of local players. It cannot be dismissed as a coincidence that the most successful generation of Emirati footballers has risen at a time when the domestic league has more expats than ever before.”