Defending champions Al Ain begin preparations for new season

The UAE football league champions Al Ain started their preparations for a long and tedious new season on Wednesday.

Most of the senior squad players trained with the youth and junior squads at the Al Ain Club stadium under the watchful eye of the team therapist due to the absence of their French coach, Bruno Metsu and his two assistants, Mohammed Al Mansy and Ahmed Abdullah.

Metsu is scheduled to arrive here today and is likely to lead the trainings from tomorrow.

The club's first choice professional, Abu Bakr Sanogo of Ivory Coast arrived last week.

Al Ain midfielder Sultan Rashid and goalkeeper Waleed Salim are still in London for medical check-ups and are expected to arrive prior to the team's departure for their external camp later this month.

Team skipper Fahd Ali, who was also in London, returned home a couple of days back following extensive medical tests.

The first step before Al Ain is their away semi-final match of the AFC Champions League against China's Dalian Shide on August 30.

The encounter was earlier scheduled for April, but had to be postponed due to the SARS scare.

Al Ain whacked the Chinese side 4-2 at home, and need a draw to qualify for the final against BEC Tero Sasana of Thailand scheduled for October 4 and 11.

On the other hand, Dalian Shide need a clear 2-0 result against the UAE side.

As per the training schedule of the team, Al Ain will start with a five-week external camp in Switzerland and Italy.

The ongoing fitness camp will conclude on July 22 and the team will fly to Switzerland on July 24.

The first part of the training will be confined to physical fitness and the team will depart for Italy on August 12 where they are scheduled to play six friendlies against Italian teams.

"As many 12 Italian clubs have expressed their desire to play against us. But we will choose the six whose technical standard suits us best," said Hamad bin Nikhairat Al Amry the team's supervisor.

Al Ain also plan to depart at least a week in advance for their away game at the Dalian People's Stadium in China.

Al Amry stated that a special six-member committee has been appointed to work on the recruitment of two more professionals needed for their campaign.

The body has been monitoring a number of videotapes to select the professionals as Al Ain bids to re-write history. "We expect the new pros to join the team for the external camp," added Al Amry.