Ali Khamis: we have adopted technical criteria that add excitement and competitiveness to the ‘international’ Tournament matches
Ali Khamis, Football Academy Technical Director and head of the Tournament Technical Committee, confirmed, “Hazza bin Zayed U17 International Football Tournament has been achieving great technical benefits for the Emirati football sector as a whole, not Al Ain FC Club only”.
He clarified, “No doubt that the main purpose of organizing such Tournament is to engage our players with various European and Arab African football schools, to benefit from the period of living with different football thinking, to gain the ‘international’ confrontation experience as well as the cultural and tourism aspects. In this regard, I would like to express my thanks to the Organizing Committee, headed by Mr. Sultan Rashid, for being keen to have most of the teams residing at a single place of residence – Hili Rayhaan Rotana”.
Ali Khamis confirmed that the Technical Committee has approved the penalty shoot-outs system only in case of ties at all of the Tournament matches, starting from the group stage to the finals in order to enhance the excitement and competitiveness levels among the teams. The team that wins within the original period will get three points, while the loser will not get any points. In tie cases, each team will get one point before playing the penalty shoots to compete on the second point, i.e. the winner at the penalty shoots will get two points, while the loser at the penalty shoots will get one point.
He added, “The Organizing Committee has extended invitations to all of the clubs and private football academies to participate in the workshop that would be held on the sidelines of the ‘international’ Tournament”. He described the axes that would be discussed at the workshop as rich for reflecting various experiences of different football schools.
He added, “The Technical Committee has approved accurate criteria for selecting the best player at each match as well as to nominate the best goalkeeper and player at the Tournament and the ideal team. I hope that all of the teams competing on the title of the international Tournament ninth version would achieve the desired benefits”.
When asked about the reason for the non-participation of our U17 national team, which was one of the most prominent participants in the Tournament previous versions, he answered, “No doubt that main purpose of the Tournament is to achieve technical benefits for our players at the level of our national team, in the first place, and of the club. We, at the Organizing Committee, would have been very proud of our national team’s participation, but it is committed to special preparation programs and a special agenda approved by the Football Federation. We have, no doubt, desired that our national team would be one of the participating teams”.
