Mahdi Ali backs benefits of an Emirati coach

Dubai: Mahdi Ali divided opinion when he became the first permanently appointed Emirati coach of the UAE national football team in August 2012.

The UAE had just come off the back of a torrid 2011 Asian Cup campaign where they exited in the group phase without having scored a goal under Slovenian coach Srecko Katanec. Their inability to find the target had also ended their bid for 2014 Fifa World Cup qualification, stumbling in the third round with five losses in six matches. It left them at a record low, ranked 138th in the world.

Then amid all this gloom, Ali qualified the UAE’s under-23 squad through to the London 2012 Olympics for the first time in the nation’s history.

It was a graduation party of sorts both for an emerging coach and a group of youngsters that he had brought up through the ranks from the under-15s. Along the way they had won silver at the 2010 Asian Games, reached the quarter-finals of the 2009 Under-20 World Cup and won the 2006 Under-17 Gulf Cup, the 2008 Under-19 Asian Cup and the 2010 Under-23 Gulf Cup.

With this pedigree Ali was the logical candidate to replace Katanec, who was eventually fired for the senior team’s decline. But despite Ali’s success with the youth team, it was his inexperience at senior international level that had his doubters wanting to revert to the age-old foreign appointment.

With the benefit of hindsight, one feels those fears couldn’t have been more unjustified. Ali has since embarked on a record run of 18 matches unbeaten, with star striker Ali Mabkhout netting 17 goals in 16 matches, after he overhauled the senior squad with his trusted juniors.

Under Ali, the UAE won the Gulf Cup of Nations for only the second time in the country’s history in January and qualified for the 2015 Asian Cup for what will be their eighth appearance on the continental stage.

The UAE are now back up to 71st in the world rankings, 29 positions short of their record best ranking of 42nd set in 1998. For unsatisfied Ali, however, the thought of bettering the UAE’s best Asian Cup second-place finish in 1998 — and getting the country back to the Fifa World Cup where they failed to get out of the group in one appearance in 1990 — remains.

“It has been a remarkable year for us,” said Ali. “And now we need to raise the level for this team to play friendlies against stronger opponents for our future preparations.

“I have said many times we need stronger games. We really need to be looking to play against teams who are ranked below 30 because we need to prepare the UAE team for the Asian Cup and for future tournaments.

“We have bigger challenges in the future, especially because we want to be one of the four best teams in Asia [to qualify to the World Cup].

“We have to work very hard, we have to be focused. We have to plan very well, we have to also think of improving all the time. We have to work hard because all the other teams are also working hard.”

According to Ali, the secret to the UAE’s success is teamwork and the result is that no-one will underestimate the benefits of an Emirati coach — be it in language or culture — again. “Everyone works hard and they know what they want,” he said. “There’s a great unity in the team, there’s a team spirit, we are a family and this I think is the main reason why we are where we are now.

“I am just happy to have changed and challenged a mindset, which says we also need a foreign coach. I’m happy that I’ve played a part in that change for my fellow Emirati coaches and changed prejudices.”