Mr President, how would you comment on the current football development in the UAE, administratively and technically?
Well, I think we have gone a long way as far as football is concerned in this country. With taking into account a limited number of players we have in this country, that is to say, about 100. Football had started here years before the foundation of the country. But officially, we started having clubs etc. after 1971 when the UAE was established. Looking back at all those years, I think that we have technically marked a good reputation. To sum up: we qualified the World Cup in Italy in 1990, which was a big achievement. In 1996 we became second during the Asian Cup. We achieved twice the 2nd position in the Arabian Gulf Competition and we won last year for the first time in the history of our country as far as the main national team is concerned. In terms of youth football, football players under 20 or 16, we have also had a couple of achievements. They did not do very well in the World Cup but the fact that we were qualified and played against the biggest international teams still repr
Mr President, how would you comment on the current football development in the UAE, administratively and technically?