Within minutes of the completion of the Asian Football Confederation combined second-round qualifying draw in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, UAE coach Mahdi Ali said the UAE had a "good chance" of reaching the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
He did take the opportunity, though, to again cite what he believes is a lack of cooperation from the domestic league.
The UAE is joined in Group A by Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Timor-Leste and Malaysia to make it – along with Group H – one of the two most difficult groups.
The eight group winners and four best runners-up advance to the third round of World Cup qualifying in Asia and also qualify for the 2019 Asian Cup, to be held in the UAE.
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A separate tournament to determine the other 12 Asian Cup qualifiers will take place involving the 28 teams that fail to advance to the next stage of World Cup qualifiers.
Mahdi Ali pointed out on Tuesday that he had guided what is known at home as the "golden generation" to win the Under 19 AFC Asian Cup in 2008, reach the Fifa U20 World Cup a year later, take victory in the U23 Gulf Cup in 2010 and also collect U23 Asian Games silver.
“I’d like to make a point,” the national team coach said. “When we started with this group in 2008 we had a four-year programme, which was carried out not 100, but 200 per cent.
“Sixteen players from 2008 made the step up to the first team. That was the prime reason for promoting a good generation.”
He said the 2014/15 Arabian Gulf League season has seen disagreements between league teams and the national set up.
“Now we need to have a similar programme,” he said. “We have developed a programme for the team and we will discuss with the league and hopefully there will be no issues. There is a good chance of reaching the World Cup.
“We don’t want what happened recently, when we didn’t play in March, to happen again. Now we have six months in which we didn’t play a match.”
One of his main complaints is that the AGL season originally was scheduled to finish on May 30, with the President’s Cup beginning on June 3.
Before the timing of this draw and the first qualifiers were announced, the AGL changed its timetable to finish on May 10, with the President’s Cup matches, starting with the round of 16, taking place immediately afterwards and carrying on through May.
The UAE’s first qualifier is on June 16 away to Timor-Leste and Mahdi Ali is concerned that there will be a long period of inactivity for players whose clubs are knocked out of the President’s Cup early.
“We need talk before the issues arise,” he said. “Imagine a player being out of action for three weeks, his season is over. This is the reality and I’ve warned against this.
“We are approaching an important time and we need everyone’s backing. It’s hard to prepare without the players. I can’t call on just three or four players to run through some fitness training, that is unacceptable.
“I called for the league to finish on May 30 with the cup on June 3. That way the players will continue to play until that point.”
The manager reiterated his belief that the AGL does not prepare the players adequately for international football, in technical and, especially, in physical terms. In the past he has highlighted that, at international level, the time played in a match is near 60 minutes while in the domestic league it rarely exceeds 40 minutes.
“The first qualifiers come straight after the domestic league season. We must be careful and we must see how ready the players are.”
The UAE’s group is one of only two to have three teams that competed in the recent Asian Cup in Australia; the other countries being Palestine and Saudi Arabia. The Saudis are the strongest of the Pot 2 sides, per Fifa world rankings.
The coach preferred to concentrate on his own team.
“Of course, I keep an eye on for all teams, but I must look to my team first,” he said.
“There is no point talking about the opposition if your own team is not fully prepared. We are happy to meet anyone.”
2018 World Cup qualification – AFC second round
Group A: UAE, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Timor-Leste, Malaysia
Group B: Australia, Jordan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Bangladesh
Group C: China, Qatar, Maldives, Bhutan, Hong Kong
Group D: Iran, Oman, India, Turkmenistan, Guam
Group E: Japan, Syria, Afghanistan, Singapore, Cambodia
Group F: Iraq, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Chinese Taipei
Group G: South Korea, Kuwait, Lebanon, Myanmar, Laos
Group H: Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Philippines, North Korea, Yemen
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