HAMMAD: AL AIN’S PLAYERS ARE HEROES IN GROUPS STAGES AND OVERCAME THE MOST DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES
UAEFA HOLDS A MEETING TO DISCUSS THE NEW SEASON ARRANGEMENTS
QUESTION MARKS ON THE MECHANISM OF SELECTING THE SEASON STARS AND AL AIN DESERVES MORE
Mohammed Obeid Hammad, Board Member of Al Ain Club Football Company and supervisor of the First and Reserve Teams, confirmed that Al Ain had proved his upper hand in the group stage of the AFC Champions League and qualified to the quarterfinal round despite the difficult circumstances the team faced in Group D following 4 draws prior the team’s strong return and won Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal FC in the fifth round. He pointed out: “Efforts were consolidated to face many circumstances and achieve positive results and most importantly the massive support of the fans and superiority of players’ performance and not to forget the excellent efforts of the technical and administrative staff.”
“Our confidence has never been shaken by the team’s ability to move beyond the group stage despite the obstacles they faced,” said he. He added: “Yesterday, all players were at the best level ever by their impressive reaction to the extent one might be hesitant if asked to single out one star in the team as they all were stars on the pitch. I can remember that Al Ain moved forward to the final match of the competition despite losing two matches in the groups stage.” He pointed out: “It would have looked very painful and sad if we had not passed the first round of the ACL2018 because the team always looking for excellence on the level of results.”
Hammad stated that Al Ain has several challenges in the coming period and the new season which means that we have to take all the necessary arrangement in the right manner. He said: “We have to wait for the results of the meeting scheduled by UAEFA with the technical managers of clubs especially many players are going to join UAE National Team to discuss matters related to the schedule of the coming season.” He pointed out: “At the same time, Al Ain objected to the schedule because the month of August will witness see the beginning of preparatory camps and it is not logical to exclude any player in such an important stage because matches of UAE National Team still need time and that the Head Coach of UAE National Team could have more time to conduct filed visits to see what is going on during the preparation period. Anyway, we have to wait and be patient until issuing the new decisions of the coming meeting.”
Hammad underlined: “Our focus now is on the Arabian Gulf League as we have already closed the chapter of the ACL2018 to finalize our preparations for the coming match against Al Nasr.” He went on to say: “Our players deserve to be crowned with the shield because they are the most eligible for such recognition and they proved that since the kickoff of the Asian competition in the previous stage and their perfect and excellent reaction in all games before moving back to the President’s Cup which the dearest to all sportsmen’s hearts then we will be back to play in the quarterfinals of the ACL2018.”
On the nomination of Al Ain’s players for the Professional League Committee Awards, Hammad said: “We expected to nominate more players from Al Ain’s players because they deserved the best compared to the results they achieved and their professional level.” He further stated: “We note the absence of Mohammed Abdul Rahman despite the fact that he comes first in the number of participations along with commitment and technical level. Also, their list missed Ahmed Barman and Shiotani who are good players specially as the latter recovered successfully from a surgery and exhibited a strong performance with the team.” He concluded his statement by pointing out that there is a player who only played 8 matches and was granted the PLC Award “I have no comments on and I do not know the criteria for granting PLC awards.”
