Dubai: The Kuwait national football team had to be escorted out of the Robina Stadium in Australia’s Gold Coast by police on Saturday after refusing to play a friendly against the UAE. According to sources, Kuwait took exception to the fact the Asian Cup warm-up game couldn’t be filmed by their technical staff and so abandoned the friendly match in protest. They stayed on the field for an impromptu training session instead.
The stadium owners could only get the team off the pitch by turning on the sprinklers and when the team retreated indoors to a synthetic training pitch, the police were called and the players only left the complex after they were threatened with arrest. It is not yet clear if Kuwait will be disciplined by Fifa or the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) over their behaviour, but the UAE could have a case for compensation to accrue money spent on travel and hotel in preparation for this game.
The UAE Football Association (UAE FA) president Yousuf Al Sarkal is holding a pre-Asian Cup press conference at the UAE FA headquarters in Al Khawaneej on Sunday from 11am, where the topic of Kuwait’s refusal to play is expected to make its way on to the agenda.
The UAE beat Jordan 1-0 at the same stadium last week and were due to take on Kuwait in further preparation for the Asian Cup, which runs from January 9-31. The UAE are in Group C and will play Qatar, Bahrain and Iran, while Kuwait are in Group A with hosts Australia, South Korea and Oman.
