New soccer calendar set in motion

Dubai: The Professional League Association (PLA) and the Football Association (FA) agreed in their last meeting held at the FA premises in Abu Dhabi to start the new season on September 14 with the Super cup and to be finished on May 24.

"We agreed in the meeting on most of the important issues regarding the professional league and the UAE national team commitments in the World Cup and Asian qualifiers. Each club will play one league match weekly and no long stoppages," said Mohammad Al Mahmoud, the PLA vice president.

The new season will witness four tournaments organised by the PLA: Super cup, Professional league, Professional League Association Cup and Challenge Cup for the under 21, while the FA will organise the President's Cup.

Al Mahmoud added that the league first round ends in January and the second round start on February. "When a national team is playing, matches of the Professional Clubs Association Cup will be carried during that period.

"The Fifa and AFC decided on Wednesday that for the international matches, clubs can play the professional league on Saturday, after three days from the national team match. The clubs are professionals and they have to deal with the new situation."

Al Mahmoud said the Asian Football Confederation agreed to the Gulf Cup being played from January 4 to 17, 2009 and the Asian Cup qualifiers for the GCC countries to be postponed.

Being flexible

"The GCC countries will ask other Asian countries to postpone the Asian Cup qualifiers and play them after the Gulf cup ends. The UAE will ask Malaysia to postpone the match scheduled for January 14 because it clashes with the Gulf Cup," said Al Mahmoud.

He said the PLA is adhering to the Fifa regulations concerning the national team players and release from their clubs, as Al Jazira club protested that the national team take players for long periods which is not consistent with the Fifa regulations.

"We are sticking to the Fifa rules, but some matches need a long period of preparations like the North Korea match on September 6. We have to give all the support for our national team to achieve success to reach the world cup finals," he concluded.