Al Sirkal said that it will be unfair to expect great things from this UAE team and to expect them to compete for the title.
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"We have been absent of the last Asian Cup in 2000, and our late results do not justify any claims to compete for the title. But recently, our results have been improving," he said.
"We, in the FA, regard our participation in the Asian Cup as a major step in building a team that can harvest these fruits whether in the qualifiers for the World Cup or in the next Gulf Cup. We aim to recover the glory of the UAE football in Asia. That can only be achieved by hard work, determination and good preparation for the team," Al Sirkal said yesterday in Jinan.
"Al Ain winning the Asian Champions League, both Al Wahda and Sharjah reaching the quarterfinals of the same competition in addition to the good performances of the senior team in the qualifiers of the 2006 World Cup and the Olympic team indicates that our game is on the right path. The efforts of the last few years is starting to pay off."
Al Sirkal stated the logic behind the signing of Aad de Mos in place of Jean Francois Jodar at a critical time, one month before the kick off of the Asian Cup.
"Our aim was to build a team for a certain phase and we believed that Jodar was not the suitable coach for that aim so we signed de Mos for one year," he said.
"The purpose of a one- year contract was to give ourselves and the coach the chance to see what will happen in that time. And if we find that the partnership is paying off then we will renew the contract because we are really thinking about the stability of the technical staff so they can achieve our goals," Al Sirkal elaborated.
"And despite the fact that we don't care too much about the results which the team might achieve in this Asian Cup we expect the team to compete for a seat in the quarterfinals.
"I believe that our show against China gives us hope. That match in particular has helped in restoring the image of UAE football in Asia."
Al Sirkal also talked about the financial problems which the FA faces at the moment. "We have enough money to take us up to the end of next month, August," he said.
"We thank Shaikh Saeed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the former President of the FA who instructed to transfer Dhs 5 millions to the FA which was the surplus of the budget of the last FIFA Under 20 World Cup.
"We are still waiting for our budget which will enable us to realise our goals and to implement our plans. We have faith that Shaikh Abdullah will play a major role to solve that problem," Al Sirkal concluded.