Today's Edition
KUMMAR SHYAM (ABU DHABI)
The UAE have trained well and are ready to take on Bahrain in their opening match of the West Asia Football Federation (WAFF) Under-19 Championship which started on Tuesday.
Three groups of four teams each are competing in the third staging of the event, which is being hosted in the Saudi Arabian city of Taif. The Abyad Al Shabab youth kick off Group C proceedings on Wednesday at 6pm against Bahrain at the King Fahd Sports City Stadium. Syria and Palestine are the other teams in the group.
The UAE “Whites” concluded their preparations for the match with a training session on one of the subsidiary stadiums under the leadership of coach Salim Abdel Rahman and the assistant technical staff.
“The youth team includes a number of talented players, who represent a promising future for Emirati football. We are keen to compete well and achieve positive results during our journey in the tournament,” Abdel Rahman said.
The manager said the tournament will be a “a good opportunity for the technical staff” to arrive at the composition of the squad for the 2025 Asian Cup Under-20 Qualifiers to be held in September later this year.
The UAE, it was decided after the technical meeting of all team officials with the organising committee at the teams’ hotel, will get to wear the tradition white jerseys against Bahrain and Syria but will don the away green jersey against Palestine.
There will be six match days, 12 teams participating and three groups. The first-placed teams in the three groups, in addition to the best second-placed team, qualify for the semi-finals.
Group A is composed of hosts Saudi, Oman, Kuwait and Yemen; while Group B features two-time defending champions Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and Albania, who have been invited to compete as a non-WAFF entry.
Iraq have won both the previous two stagings, including at home in 2021, and in Palestine in 2019.
