Dubai: Any success for the Philippines national team at next month's AFC Challenge Cup will be against all odds, according to their coach Michael Weiss, who blames ‘internal politics' for the team's far from ideal preparations.

The Azkals (Street Dogs) are in Dubai for a training camp until February 17 and will play in Kathmandu, Nepal, at the Asian Cup equivalent for emerging nations from March 8 to 19. Their group consists of three past champions, Tajikistan, India and North Korea — a pooling co-captain James Younghusband has dubbed ‘The Group of Death'.

As a warm-up they will play the under-23s teams of Uzbekistan and Australia on February 11 and 16 respectively at Dubai's Al Nasr Stadium in Oud Mehta (kick-offs 8pm).

But issues surrounding the Philippines' newly-formed domestic league and politics regarding the release of club players for national team duty is threatening to disrupt their preparations for the biggest tournament in the developing football nation's short history. So far 18 players have flown in from Manila after being wrestled from their clubs and a further five now expect to fly in from Europe, where release clauses have also been hard-fought affairs.

Internal problems

Elsewhere in the world, it is the clubs who form the national team, but in the Philippines the fame of the Azkals has sparked new-found club structure, making it ironic that clubs now threaten to hold their players back.

Weiss said: "We've had far from ideal preparation, what with internal problems and clubs demanding their players, as per Fifa rules all over the world. That has taken its toll on us and has left us disadvantaged. Last year [pre-league professionalism] I had the players with me all the time and that's why we could develop as a squad so quickly, but now we are struggling.

"Clubs have their rights and we have to adjust," added Weiss. "We are happy the clubs are there now and that they give the players an income so they can make a living out of the game. In these kind of growing nations you face these issues and you have to make the most out of it.

"We always made sure last year we play opposition that is stronger than us. That's why we have Australia and Uzbekistan now to physically challenge the players, because local league and domestically we're at a very low level," he said.

Spirit within

"But it's important players are made available for this exposure. If we can bring in a few more European-based players we'll have a good chance to make top four in Nepal.

"Should we get to the semi-finals you never know what might happen. Obviously our primary goal is to win. That would cause a tsunami across the footballing world.

"Here in Dubai clubs have five pitches and we don't have five pitches in Manila. But what we do have is players hungry to fight and sacrifice everything.

"It's a challenge every day what with internal struggles at the federation. But we have a spirit within the team — this is a special phenomenon because no national team has ever risen this quickly before in world football," Weiss added of the team who are now ranked 157 in the world and 27 in the AFC.

Tickets for the Dubai friendlies are available at all Virgin Megastore, Giordano and Orlando Sports branches, costing Dh165 for VIP, Dh75 for category A and Dh50 for category B places.