ALI KHAMIS: ORGANIZING COMMITTEE HAS NOT RECEIVED ANY OBJECTIONS AGAINST REFEREES’ DECISIONS
Ali Khamis, Technical Director of Al Ain Football Academy and Chairman of the Technical Committee of Hazza Bin Zayed International Junior Football Tournament, said that teams competing for the title of the 10th edition enjoy high potentials and excellent tactical sense as well as physical strength and full physical balance and personally wished that Al Ain U-16 had played against all participating teams by activating the league system of one round so that we enable our players to effectively interact with everyone and gain experience through the actual friction with all the visiting academies, but we will plan to have such an idea in place in the following edition of the tournament.
In response to a question on the reason why Al Ain Club did not participate with two teams, he said: “Since the league’s agenda has already kicked off, it became difficult to play this international tournament with two teams and usually in such competitions we coordinate with the UAE Football Association and the Abu Dhabi Sports Council. However, we usually select certain excellent players from U-15 team to play with the U-16 team with the aim of giving them the opportunity to gain the required experience and taking advantage of the tournament.”
On the second practical workshop held yesterday, he said: “We seek to take advantage as much as possible of all technical experts to share experiences, ideas, plans and structures that contribute to the development of the potentials, charisma and efforts of coaches because football has become a science taught in higher specialized institutes and we are required to keep up the pace with the signs of evolution. Actually, this is part of the goals for organizing such an international tournament.”
On the objections that accompanied the semi-finals on the referees’ decisions, he said: “The four teams certainly performed well and worked hard during the matches and excitement was present during the whole matches and add to that competition and challenge are healthy phenomenon, especially as the tournament has its excellent reputation. As for mistakes, they remain part of football game and personally I am against using the term mistakes but they were wrong estimate and such a case have happened in only one case in the semi-finals.”
He concluded by saying that Argentina’s Atalaya FC did not submit any objections to the Organizing Committee “On the contrary, the team’s officials at the Deportivo Academy and all the competing teams confirmed their desire to participate in the next edition of the tournament.”
