UAE cancel football friendly against Libya

Abu Dhabi: The UAE FA has decided to cancel their friendly match which was scheduled to be played in Tripoli on January 19 against Libya because of security and safety reasons.

The UAE B team was announced on Tuesday to gather in Abu Dhabi on Monday and leave for Libya the next day, led by Dr. Abdulla Misfir, but the security conditions in Libya led to the cancellation of the match.

The plans for preparing the senior UAE national team will go ahead as scheduled and they will play a friendly match against Uzbekistan on January 29 to prepare for their match against Lebanon in the qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup - despite the fact the UAE has no hope of qualification whatsoever.

The match against Lebanon is the last in the preliminary round, where UAE have lost all their matches so far, but a single point might be enough to lead Lebanon to the final stage of the qualifiers.