Sport | Football
Bathenay buys time ahead of Iraq friendly
The UAE senior football team will face Iraq on December 27 in a friendly match preparing for the 19th Gulf Cup in Muscat, Oman from January 4, in which both teams will compete in different groups.
- By Yasir Abbasher, Senior Reporter
- Published: 00:41 December 2, 2008
- UAE football team during the match against Saudi Arabia at the Al Jazeera stadium in Abu Dhabi in September.
- Image Credit: Gulf News Archive
Abu Dhabi: The UAE senior football team will face Iraq on December 27 in a friendly match preparing for the 19th Gulf Cup in Muscat, Oman from January 4, in which both teams will compete in different groups.
The UAE will have the big challenge of defending the title which they won in 2007, while Iraq will go all out to capture the crown after losing the chance to qualify for the second round of the Asian qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup - this despite being the reigning Asian Cup Champions.
The UAE will kick off their campaign in the Gulf Cup on January 5 against Yemen in the second group that also features Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Iraq will play in the first group with hosts Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait, provided Fifa raise their ban from their Football Association.
Change of date
Dominique Bathenay, the UAE head coach, has opted to change the date of the friendly match against Iraq by bringing it forward by one day from December 28.
The Frenchman hopes to have a little more time to iron out any flaws in the team as this will be the only friendly game that the team will play before travelling to Oman.
Bathenay has also expressed his concern about the decision of many of his key players to retire from international matches - Al Wahda's defender Basheer Saeed became the last player to announce his wish to retire from the national team.
"Basheer is a key player in our team and I have already chose him for the team eligible to play in the Gulf Cup," Bathenay told a local newspaper yesterday.
"It is not correct for each player to announce his retirement without returning to the FA Technical Committee for advise.
The FA Technical Committee, headed by Mohammad Khalfan Al Rumaithi the Chairman of the UAE FA, is in charge of the national teams.
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