The UAE FA has paid tribute to the national team’s technical analyst Lars Gansauer after he died following a heart attack at a first team training session.
Gansauer, who was a long time ally of national team head coach Mahdi Ali, suffered a heart attack as the players trained at Abu Dhabi’s Zayed Sports City on Saturday in preparation for their 2018 World Cup qualifying double-header with Palestine on Thursday and Saudi Arabia on March 29.
The UAE FA confirmed the news via its website and Twitter account on Sunday night and also posted a picture of Gansauer in a UAE polo shirt.
The Swiss was a former, prominent sports journalist in his homeland and still appeared regularly on Swiss television. He later became an analyst and coach and been with the UAE national team set-up for the last seven years in a variety of roles, including spending the last three years as technical analyst.
He joined the UAE FA in 2009 following a two-year stint with Swiss Super League side FC Sion in his homeland. He was with Ali and the UAE at the London 2012 Olympics and had also previously helped out at Manchester City’s academy.
A statement on the UAE FA website read: “It is with great sadness and sorrow the UAE Football Association mourns the death of first team analyst Mr Lars Gansauer, who passed away while attending a first team training session at Zayed Sports City in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.
“The UAE FA extends its heartfelt condolences to Lars’ family and the sports and football family in the Emirates.”
In other football news, a vote on the new UAE FA election cycle from 2016 to 2020 will be discussed by the UAE’s clubs on April 30.
In a vote held at UAE FA headquarters in Dubai on Sunday, meanwhile, 26 of the UAE’s 31 club teams agreed to keep the current election committee and add two new members to replace two who had recently resigned.
