The national football team starts an internal training camp tomorrow in Dubai before traveling to Doha next Friday to participate in the 2025 Arab Cup, scheduled to be held there from December 1 to 18. The technical staff, led by Romanian coach Olaru Cosmin, has selected 23 players to participate in this event. The team will play its first match in the tournament against Jordan on December 3. Former national team goalkeeper and current football coach Mutez Abdullah stated that the national team's participation in the Arab Cup is a new opportunity for the technical staff under coach Cosmin to leave his technical mark, which has been absent throughout his tenure with the team and during the previous coach, Paulo Bento's period. He believes that participating in this tournament allows the technical staff to better understand the players' abilities and identify the team's problems. Mutez Abdullah added in an interview with "Al-Ittihad Al-Youm": "The national team's participation in the Arab Cup is a sound decision, and it is also a new opportunity for the team to gain more experience and cohesion, because if the team had participated with the reserve squad and achieved poor results, that would have led to even more negative consequences. That's why I was against the UAE's participation in this event with the reserve squad." He continued: "I wished the team would participate in the Arab Cup in the same group as in the recent World Cup qualifiers, because that would give the technical staff a chance to get to know the players better and understand where the team's problems lie." In response to a question about the team's future, Abdullah said: "There are three important points to discuss regarding the team: first, Cosmin's technical mark has not yet appeared on the team despite having had enough time to work with it, especially in the matches in Qatar. He led the team in several official and friendly matches, as well as in many gatherings and preparation camps. The second point is that the players available to Cosmin were not available to the former coach, Paulo Bento, who was dismissed last March. The third and most important point is that the problem that appeared during his tenure with the team lies in reading the opponent and managing the game. You find him playing with one formation in one match and a different formation in another, as if he is playing one match with his technical mindset and another with the public opinion's." Regarding what the team needs in the next phase, Abdullah clarified: "We must be realistic, we cannot judge the team based on the recent World Cup qualifiers and portray it as a failure when it is not. But in my opinion, such matters require patience, and after that, a complete judgment can be made on them, along with more attention to the player testing process." Mutez Abdullah stressed that there is no excuse for Cosmin to correct the course and build a strong team by addressing the mistakes made in the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, and the dream of reaching the World Cup for the second time in its history has vanished. The team plays in the Arab Cup in Group C alongside Egypt, Jordan, and the winner of the match between Kuwait and Mauritania. Mutez Abdullah: • I wished the team would participate in the Arab Cup in the same group as in the recent World Cup qualifiers. • Participation in the tournament allows the technical staff to better understand the players' abilities and identify the team's problems.
