Gulf Cup growing in stature, says UAE FA president Al Serkal

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  • Positive mindset: UAE Football Association supremo Yousif Al Serkal.

    The Gulf Cup remains in ever-increasing health as it prepares to launch its 22nd edition today, according to UAE Football Associa­tion president Yousif Al Serkal.

    Although not recognised as an official FIFA event by the sport’s world governing body, regional pride and competition ensures interest is high.

    The attention has led to an increase in money coming into it through sponsorship, while the technical level of play continues to rise.

    This improvement on the pitch is evidenced by the fact that the trio of players on the 2014 Asian Football Confederation Player of the Year shortlist all come from the Gulf, in UAE centre-back Ismail Ahmed, Qatar winger Khalfan Ibrahim and Saudi Arabia striker Nasser Al Shamrani.

    Speaking at Al Riyadh Stadium ahead of the Whites’ opening train­ing session in the Saudi capital, AFC vice president Al Serkal spoke in buoyant terms about the tourna­ment.

    “I base my answer on the market value,” he said. “The competition’s value for sponsorship has been going up gradually.

    “From that side we can see it is still important. From the techni­cal side, we can also see all our opponents are benefitting from playing in the competition itself. It is still important.”

    An unfortunate by-product of the increased financial stakes has seen a blackout of the competition on all  free-to-air television channels in the UAE after they unified to reject the demands of a media rights com­pany.

    MP & Silva supposedly quoted $15 million (Dh55m) to Dubai and Abu Dhabi Sports Channel to be able to show the Gulf Cup.

    The figure requested was report­edly different for each country and was many times higher than the one asked for Bahrain 2013.

    No middle ground could be reached in negotiations, meaning as it stands viewers in the Emirates will only be able to witness their nation’s title defence on subscrip­tion channel beIN Sports.

    “It is a very unfortunate thing,” Al Serkal added.

    “This is a friendly competition, with very important attachment to all the crowd and football family in all the Gulf countries.

    “It is a really sad thing to see some very important television chan­nels were not being treated equally financially. We know some were able to buy the rights for $4-5m, where we were quoted to pay $15m, which is outrageous.

    “It is something which will have a negative effect on the competi­tion. We cannot deprive the UAE TV channels of this right when it is given to other channels in other countries.”

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