DUBAI // Tariq al Tayer, the Football League chairman, has added his voice to the chorus of disapproval over Al Ahli's Club World Cup embarrassment by insisting the Pro League champions were "unprepared" for last month's Fifa showpiece.
The Dubai side were soundly beaten by Oceania's amateur champions Auckland City in the competition's opening match - a play-off match for a quarter-final place. Al Tayer, a panel speaker at yesterday's Fourth Dubai International Sports Conference, lamented the 2-0 loss as a missed opportunity for a domestic club to put itself on the international football map.
"We were extremely disappointed by the performance of Al Ahli in the Club World Cup. We had high hopes for them," said al Tayer. "There was a lot of trust because of their excellent league performances last season. But they lacked preparation and, as the local representatives, did not take the tournament seriously. I believe they did not equip themselves for a professional tournament with leading international players."
With caretaker manager Mahdi Ali's stepping down last week, Ahli are now searching for their fourth coach in six months. But al Tayer dismissed the club's changes in personnel as an excuse for their humbling. "Changing coaches will inevitably affect players but an organisation should not depend on one man," he said.
Under the Club World Cup format, this year's Pro League champions will again earn the chance to compete against the champions of the six continental confederations in Abu Dhabi in December.
And al Tayer, who ruled out the possibility that the league would organise glamour friendlies to boost the UAE entrant's preparations, was adamant that whichever side represents the UAE will handle their task better than Ahli.
"We will always do whatever is in our power to help but we will not interfere in a club's preparations for the tournament," said al Tayer. "The club's management should be aware of the importance of representing the UAE and hopefully they will have learned the lesson from Ahli's experience."
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Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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2000: Israel withdraws from Lebanon after nearly 30 years without an officially demarcated border. The UN establishes the Blue Line to act as the frontier.
2007: Lebanon and Cyprus define their respective exclusive economic zones to facilitate oil and gas exploration. Israel uses this to define its EEZ with Cyprus
2011: Lebanon disputes Israeli-proposed line and submits documents to UN showing different EEZ. Cyprus offers to mediate without much progress.
2018: Lebanon signs first offshore oil and gas licencing deal with consortium of France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Novatek.
2018-2019: US seeks to mediate between Israel and Lebanon to prevent clashes over oil and gas resources.
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