Sport | Football
Expats in UFL possible: Nohra
UAE pro- league CEO reveals to XPRESS plans to involve residents from overseas in the near future
- By Rohan Alvares, Sports Reporter
- Published: 00:00 August 26, 2010
- Image Credit: Francois Nel/Gulf News
- Carlo Nohra, CEO of UFL talks at the media roundtable that was held at the UFL HQ in Jumeirah.
Dubai : Carlo Nohra, the new CEO of the UAE Football League (UFL), has revealed the league have held talks with the UAE Football Association regarding the possibility of granting expatriates the opportunity to play for professional teams in the Emirates.
Under current policy, expatriates, who comprise more than 80 per cent of the UAE's population, are not eligible to play for any professional club. However, Nohra told XPRESS exclusively that it's likely the situation could change in the future. "Yes we have [discussed it] is the direct answer," he said. "But we have done it with the right party. The UAE Football Association is the party that is in charge of youth football development. We are the professional side so we are dealing with the established sides.
"However in terms of registration of players that could play in the league, we have had this conversation with the UAE Football Association. It is a very important question in this environment because the majority of the population is expatriate," added Nohra.
tough choice
The CEO's words will surely bring a smile to the faces of coaches at the many private football academies in the UAE, several of whom have often lamented the current policy. But Nohra said clubs would still face a difficult choice, if the rules changed, of whether to opt for an expatriate over an overseas player to occupy the foreign player's slot. "The consideration that would have to go into this argument is once these players reach a certain level, if they don't qualify to the first teams, they can only qualify as foreign players even though they have been developed here. So the big question is do you take them in, train them, develop them and then lose a slot for a foreign player?" he said.
However, Nohra, who has worked with the Asian Football Confederation in the past, admitted such a scenario could yet prove to be the ideal remedy in getting expatriates more involved in the UFL. "We have not resolved it yet, we haven't reached a specific direction on it either. But we are having this conversation which is very encouraging, because one of the keys to getting the expat community to come to matches is when expat children can engage at a greater level in the sport in the Emirates.
"Part of not only our statutory remit but even a requirement from the Asian Football Confederation and Fifa under the club licensing rules would be to establish proper youth systems, which I know exist here anyway. So we don't have to do a lot more work, but we may have to streamline them one to comply with the regulations. That may open the door to greater involvement of expatriate children playing in younger age groups at the clubs," said Nohra.
New UFL website
Dubai UFL CEO Carlo Nohra yesterday launched the league's new official website and also unveiled the new branding of the Etisalat Pro-League.
Nohra sounded confident the new site (www.ufl.ae) would be a lot more user friendly towards English speaking fans than web pages of the past. "We have to recognise the majority of the population in this country is expatriate and they all love football. We need to address their needs, we've got to compete at the entertainment level," said Nohra.
"We had only one static landing page when I took over of information which was two years old. I was under a bit of pressure to address the situation. The pressure was to at least get some information on there, publish schedules, kick-off times. Hopefully it will be a lot more than that. It will be handled as a genuine website with fresh stories on a daily basis if not more regular than that. But equally we are not a news agency. We just want to make sure that the most basic information is available." RA
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