Pro League Committee keen to meet all 14 Arabian Gulf League sides

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  • Dragging their heels: Al Ain’s Omar Abdulrahman (l) and Al Nasr’s Ali Hussain.

    The Pro League Committee are trying to arrange a meeting with all Arabian Gulf League clubs to discuss the proposed delay to the domestic schedule.

    The organising body’s Technical Committee had prepared an alternative calendar in view of Monday’s decision to allow Gulf Cup hosts Kuwait to postpone the competition for a year because of infrastructure problems.

    — Sport360° (@Sport360) August 3, 2015

    This has removed the need for a break from December 6-January 8 and seen plans enacted to push back the season-opening Arabian Gulf Super Cup to mid-September from August 15, with kick-offs for the top-flight on August 19 and Arabian Gulf Cup on August 27 also set to be altered.

    No official announcement has been made about the call yet. But Technical Committee head Hamad Nekhirat Al Ameri is keen to discuss the scheme with all professional teams by the end of this week and gain consensus, any choices set to be ratified by UAE national team chief Mahdi Ali to ensure adequate preparatory time for 2018 World Cup qualifiers.

    This endeavour has been complicated by the fact all professional sides are currently engaged in Europe-based training camps, meaning key decision makers may struggle to attend. There is also anger in the AGL about the repeat changes.

    It was only decided in May the division would begin a month earlier than its traditional September kick-off, costs being incurred altering and cancelling pre-season bookings which could now actually have been fulfilled.

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    There is also confusion about the proposed alterations. Ahead of the Gulf Cup delay, the Technical Committee had agreed internally to play the Super Cup between Al Ain and Al Nasr on September 12, the first round of the cup on August 30 and first round of the AGL over September 18-20.

    But speaking to Al Ittihad newspaper on Monday, Al Ameri stuck with the cup choice but revealed the Super Cup would be played on September 14 or 15 and the league from September 21.

    “We will announce the change by the end of the current calendar week and will be ready after we receive some observations by our partners,” he added.

    Meanwhile, the delayed 23rd Gulf Cup will be held in December 2016 after the competing nations decided on the revised date.

    A two-day Standing Committee of Secretaries convention attended by representatives from each of the six Gulf Cooperation Council nations, plus Iraq and Yemen, reached its culmination yesterday.

    A postponement to either December 2016 or January 2017 had originally been agreed by unanimous consent on Monday, general secretary Mohammed Hazzam Al Dhaheri representing the UAE Football Association. 

    “We have got the agreement of the member associations,” Kuwait FA president Sheikh Dr. Talal Al Fahad Al Sabah told his organisation’s Facebook page.

    “The tournament stadiums still need a longer time to be ready and in good shape.”

    It has been estimated by the Kuwaitis several months of maintenance work are required to ensure venues such as the 60,000-capacity Jaber Al Ahmad International Stadium and separate training facilities are ready for use. It was not possible for this to be done before the original December 23-January 5 running dates.

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