Emirati football needs a comprehensive correction

Former national team and Al-Nasr club player, Khaled Ismail, considered that Emirati football has reached a stage that requires comprehensive correction, to rearrange the game cards again, after the national team failed in the task of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup.

Khaled Ismail, one of the stars of the golden generation who qualified for the 1990 World Cup in Italy, told Emirates Al-Youm that what is happening today on the football scene does not befit the history of Emirati football, nor the aspirations of the broad masses who have never failed to support their teams and clubs, adding, “The failure to qualify for the 2026 World Cup finals was not just a passing accident, but rather a natural result of a long path of confused decisions and ineffective management.”

It is noteworthy that Khaled Ismail scored the first goal for the Emirates in the World Cup finals in the match that the “Whites” lost to Germany (1-5) and was watched by more than 70 thousand spectators. In the 1990 World Cup, the Emirates played three matches, all of which were lost in order, against Colombia (0-2), against Germany (1-5), and against Yugoslavia (1-4) (the UAE’s goal was scored by Ali Thani).

Khaled Ismail said: “The belief that pumping money can buy success is a wrong perception, and experience has proven its complete failure. Qualifying for the World Cup is not achieved with money only, but rather with planning, hard work, and managing human and technical resources with a correct approach.”

He continued: “Unfortunately, we have spent billions of dirhams over the past years on foreign and resident players, and they have not translated into a qualitative leap at the level of the national teams. On the contrary, they were often the cause of the removal of the national player and the reduction of his natural opportunities for development and emergence. The absurd decisions that have entered Emirati football and negatively affected it must now be stopped, most notably the decisions related to naturalization and resident players.”

He explained: “I am not against naturalization as an idea or practice, as it is an approach applied globally, and has achieved great success in advanced football countries, such as France, but naturalization must be based on clear foundations and technical standards, ensuring that the naturalized player is a real product of the local environment, and not just a deal concluded for immediate purposes or personal interests.”

He explained: “The clubs’ reliance on residents and those born in the country has been circumvented in a way that contradicts the origin for which it was created, so that the goal has become to serve individual interests more than serving the future of Emirati football.”

Ismail stressed that the current football scene suffers from the absence of true national competencies, specifically the absence of former football stars who possess experience and vision, considering that their removal was a disastrous step that struck the game at its roots and made it lose the ability to develop naturally, pointing out that there are compliments given to appointments made to administrative positions and it is time for them to stop.

He said that the time has come for these stars to return to leadership positions, whether at the club level or the Football Association, as they are the closest to understanding the needs of football and the Emirati player. They are more capable than other current leaders to formulate a national project that restores prestige to local football, and is planning from now for the 2030 World Cup as a strategic goal.

Ismail stressed that club administrations played a pivotal role in the decline in the technical level of UAE football, through uncontrolled spending and contracts, which he described as random, which harmed national talents and killed their chances of competing, as he put it.

He said: “Many of the foreign and resident players who were brought in did not provide the expected addition, neither at the league level nor at the national team level.”

He added: “The time has come for the higher authorities to intervene, to hold these administrations accountable for everything they have done against Emirati football, to reset the compass of the game, and to establish strict controls that prevent the waste of money and return the football work system to its correct path.”

He continued: “The current stage cannot tolerate superficial treatment or cosmetic solutions. Rather, it needs a complete rebuilding that puts the interest of Emirati football above all else. The fans and all those affiliated with football deserve a true national project that will restore the game’s presence and radiance on the Asian and international scene.”

Khaled Ismail criticized the calls for the departure of the national team coach, Romanian Elario Cosmin, considering that the policy of constantly changing coaches, whether at the national or club level, is a peg on which administrations pin their mistakes and failure in planning.

He said: “Changing coaches will not solve the crisis in the absence of an integrated project, and this policy reflects an understanding of the nature of sports development, which requires patience, vision, and a long path that has been prepared scientifically and with deliberate steps.”

He concluded: “Football has become a science taught in universities and international organizations, which we have become completely far from, and unfortunately our local football is managed by (Fahlawa) and personal relationships, and the result has ended in the reality we currently live in.”

. Qualifying for the World Cup is not only achieved with money, but with planning and hard work.

. The clubs’ reliance on residents and those born in the country has been circumvented in a way that contradicts the principle for which it was created.