Kuumar Shyam (Abu Dhabi)
The stakeholders of Al Ain football club have started preparing for a busy international calendar next season after being crowned as Asian Champions League champions (ACL) and more doors of opportunities opening up.
Yet, the preparatory measures are coinciding with resistance over the winds of change from elsewhere.
Al Ain won the inaugural ACL in 2003 and again in May just as it has been decided to revamp the tournament such that teams from east and west of Asia meet earlier in the knockout stages rather than the existing finale.
The new version will be called the Elite Champions League. As ACL winners, Al Ain have also qualified for the 2025 Club World Cup, which is also expanding from seven teams to 32 teams.
Besides, the Garden City club will also be part of the 2024 Club Confederations Cup. Accordingly, the newly constituted board of directors of the Al Ain Football Company discussed and approved budgets for the international sojourns in their first meeting headed by Sheikh Sultan bin Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Al Ain Sports and Cultural Club, Chairman of the Executive Committee.
The meeting reviewed the administrative, technical and financial performance reports of the football company.
The requirements of the fresh season include planning for the external preparation camps for the first and academy teams, enhancing the club's media services and integrating artificial intelligence in communication and media.
While the expansion of the Club World Cup is good news for Asian clubs, the international fraternity is viewing it adversely.
On Thursday, the professional footballers' unions of England (PFA) and France (UNFP) took FIFA to court in Brussels to challenge the timetable "unilaterally set" by the world body.
Players' unions have complained that the expanded Club World Cup, due to take place in the United States in June and July next year, is an unacceptable additional burden on players.
The organisations "believe that these decisions violate the rights of players and their unions under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights while also potentially violating EU competition law", the global professional footballers union FIFPRO said in a statement.
"Players and their unions have consistently highlighted the current football calendar as overloaded and unworkable", the statement added.
"The most in-demand players are now part of an endless schedule of games and competitions for club and country, with their limits constantly being pushed through expansion and the creation of new competitions," said PFA general manager Maheta Molango.
The two unions point to a possible violation by FIFA of the right of European workers to "collectively bargain over their terms and conditions of employment" and their right to "healthy friendly working conditions", as provided for in European law.
FIFA has not commented, but sources close to the governing body point out that the international match calendar was signed off by its ruling Council which features representation from all continental confederations, including UEFA.
They also insist that calendar was the result of extensive consultation, and reject any suggestion that it was imposed on the football community.