Musical treat fails to inspire Al Jazira

We are in the middle of yet another break in the UFL, the league will restart towards the end of April. The two finalists for the Etisalat Cup have been decided with Al Ain playing Al Wahda on Friday, April 3.

I will be going this weekend and I will have a full report on the final next week. I travelled up to Al Ain for the semi-final second leg between Al Ain and Al Jazira.

The semi-final was all but dead as the home team were 4-1 up from the first leg. I was expecting a tiny crowd but I was happily proved wrong. The attendence looked to be around 6,000 which believe me is a large crowd for some of the games in the Etisalat Cup.

I had gone to Al Ahli v Ajman earlier this season in front of a total of 250 fans! Al Jazira fans, who no doubt did not think that they were going to be entertained by their team, brought a band with them.

The musicians were without doubt one of the best I have heard. They had a varied set and didn't repeat the same song twice over the 90 minutes. It was a performance only topped by Coldplay at the Emirates Palace.

The band were only playing the funeral march towards the end of the match as their team went crashing out. The other match was a 1-0 victory by Al Ahli but its was too little too late as Al Wahda won through on aggregate.

The lack of league action means that I have to turn elsewhere for my fix of live football. I went down to Al Wasl football club last week and watched the UAE national Under-17 football team train.

Professional set-up

The set-up the UAE FA have is excellent when it comes to developing young players.

All the clubs in the UAE run youth programmes from seven years upwards. The players join the club's academy and train three or four times a week as well as weekly fixtures against all the other clubs across the Emirates.

Once the players reach 14 or 15 they train as professionals. Buses will pick the boys up from school and they will go to their club to train. This is an intense daily programme as well as the weekend fixtures.

Players who are selected for the national team will spend a weekend a month at a training camp. This allows the national teams time together to prepare for international competition and for players to work almost as club teammates would.

The fact that the U19s won the Asian Championship goes to prove it is a programme that works. The FA will move into new headquarters with on-site hostel and offices as well as training facilities so I can see the youth teams moving from strength to strength.

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