Ali to stay on as under-19 coach till World Cup

Dubai: Mohammad Khalfan Al Rumaithi, chairman of the UAE Football Association (FA), said the youth under-19 coach Mehdi Ali will stay with the team in the World Cup finals in Egypt next year.

"We will not sign with any foreign coach for our under-19 and under-16 youth teams. Mehdi Ali, the coach of the under-19 team, and Ali Ebrahim, the coach of the under-16, will continue with their teams in the World Cups in Nigeria and Egypt," said Al Rumaithi.

The FA chairman praised the under-19 team for qualifying for the World Cup finals after beating Saudi Arabia in the quarter-finals.

"These youth players prepared for four years. They worked hard, attended several training camps inside and outside the UAE with played several warm-up matches. Also, there was stability in the technical staff. All this resulted in this great achievement... reaching the World Cup finals," he said.

Al Rumaithi thanked UAE clubs for taking care of the youth from under-10 until under-19.

"The clubs are doing a good job preparing these youth and providing them with good coaches and training programmes. We cannot say the FA was behind this excellent achievement, the clubs played a significant role," he said.