Abu Dhabi: The Pro League Committee (PLC) member, Abdul Hamid Al Mestaka, has hailed the positive influence of the body’s efforts on the Arabian Gulf League (AGL) season so far.
“This season we have not had any changes to the pre-approved calendar”, said Al Mestaka.
“The stable schedule of the AGL fixtures has had a positive influence on the clubs and on the competition as a whole.
“Match scheduling is a multi-stage process; The first stage of creating the season calendar is blocking dates for Fifa days, AFC Champions League, President Cup and the UAE national team commitments.”
Assigning fixtures to rounds and confirming kick-off times, this takes into consideration factors such as; TV broadcasting, geographic distribution, national and religious holidays and scheduling league fixtures on weekends said Al Mestaka.
“All these factors gave the chance to more football fans to follow the league”, according to Al Mestaka who elaborated that it also allowed teams to have stable pre-season and mid-season preparations.
Al Mestaka hailed the competitiveness of the league this season citing the intense title race as a measure of the growing level of the pro clubs.
Speaking about club licensing, Al Mestaka explained that the AGL is ranked as one of the best leagues in Asia in this aspect. Adding that the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) had praised the UAE licensing regulations as one of the best practices in the continent as the PLC has worked to put additional measures on top of the AFC standards to raise the level of clubs.
On the technical and organisational side, he said: “There are workshops being organised for clubs and match officials, match reports are also monitored through the technical department of the PLC.
“Last month, we organised the development initiatives workshop where we discussed a lot of technical issues that help develop and grow the league. We showcased studies conducted by the task force in the following aspects; Foreign players, Under-21 League, actual playing time, football academies, expat players, yellow cards reset project similar to what is done in leagues abroad”.
Al Mestaka also discussed future plans and said: “We are about to finalise the safety and security workshop that will be held in mid-February where we will host experts from the AFC and Uefa. We started working on the safety and security project in the past period through workshops and field visits while the media training for players will be conducted on February 23-25 as part of our objectives to develop the league and support all parts of the professional organisation to move forward for the best”.
About the PLC’s initiatives this season, Al Mestaka said: “We are always keen on organising community and national campaigns, stemming from the role sports and football in particular plays in bringing society together and establish the virtue of giving among the fans”.
Al Mestaka detailed: “The Flag Day round was an occasion to express love to the nation and gratitude to the founding fathers of the UAE and the unity of our nation. On the “Commemoration Day Round”, we delivered a message of pride with the martyrs of the country, as for “National Day Round”, it was rooted in our faith in the importance of the virtues of loyalty and unity between all followers of UAE football.”
Al Mestaka went on to talk about the upcoming series of initiatives as part of the “Year of Giving”, throughout the current season in the light of the announcement by President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan declaring 2017, the “Year of Giving” in the UAE.
The 2017 initiatives began with the “Feekom Al Khair” initiative to honour the working staff in AGL clubs as a gesture of appreciation to their roles in organisation and success of the competition. The “Feekom Al Khair” imitative was followed by the “Fair Support” round initiative, stemming from the PLC’s faith in supporters and the role they play. The initiative aims to encourage sportsmanship among fans. Promoting loyalty and positive support from the stands, away from intolerance and unsporting behaviour.
