Moataz Al Shami (Dubai)
Our clubs recorded a shy attendance in the opening round of the group stage of the AFC Champions League, hosted by Saudi Arabia, until April 27, and the tournament will witness the participation of the “Triple” Al-Jazira, the holder of the local league title, Al-Ahly youth, the cup champion, and Sharjah, the fourth of the league and the qualifier from the preliminary round of the tournament.
Al-Jazira and Sharjah lost to the Iraqi Air Force and the Saudi Hilal with a score of “1-2”, while Al-Ahly youth tied with Al-Turkmani, who is participating for the first time in its history in the championship, and our clubs collected one point in the opening group stage, to record their second worst appearance in the last 10 years, From the reality of monitoring the results of our participating clubs during that period.
The worst participation in the opening of the group matches goes back to the “2016 edition”, which witnessed the participation of Al Ain, Al-Jazira and Al-Nasr, and the three teams lost the “starting kick” for the groups, and despite that, the “leader” reached the final of the tournament and finished as runners-up.
During the 10-year march in the Champions League, specifically from the “2012 edition” to the “2022 edition”, the UAE participated in 37 participations, and our clubs won 8 games, tied 9 times, lost in 20 games, and our clubs scored 32 goals, while conceding 61 goals .
And our clubs need to go far in the current tournament, which will be largely limited to the number of seats in the “2023-2024 version”, and the cumulative points will be calculated during it for the last time, before changing the system to qualify for the tournament, in light of the Continental Confederation’s tendency to launch the “elite” championship or The Asian “Super League”, with the participation of elite professional clubs in the 8 most powerful leagues on the continent, is expected to start in 2024-2025, perhaps with the participation of 20 or 24 teams at most.
The AFC still adheres to the cumulative evaluation system, according to the technical standard, for club points and their attendance in the Champions League, during the last 4 years, while our clubs entered the current championship, and our league ranked ninth on the continent, and fifth on the West, and we need a different appearance and harvest The largest number of points, and won the largest number of group matches, to raise our assessment in the continental presence, after the Uzbekistan and Iraq leagues outperformed “Our League”.
For his part, Andy Roxburgh, AFC coach, confirmed that continental participation is no longer a luxury for clubs in general, in light of the readiness of most of the participating teams in the tournament, and their fight to win has become a necessity to improve their league positions.
He pointed out that the Emirati clubs are definitely required to achieve positive results, and get the “full mark”, in order to advance the league in the classification at the end of the tournament, especially since the UAE league witnessed a significant decline after the successes of its clubs in 2015 and 2016, in reaching the final and obtaining the runner-up, and Roxburgh drew He indicated that the AFC seeks to change the face of its championships at the club level in the future, in the interest of increasing competitiveness between clubs, especially after the decision to increase the number of foreigners with the next edition of the tournament, which will start between 2023 and 2024.
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