UAE Professional League Committee - UAE Pro League Committee

Etisalat Pro League teams restart struggle amid different ambitions

Following the postponement of the Etisalat Pro-League round 14 of the this season to an undetermined date, round 15 matches will be held on Saturday and Sunday, January 26 and 27 after a stoppage period for nearly 40 days due to the participation of the UAE National Senior Football Team in the GCC 21 championship, organized recently in Bahrain. All league teams will start the second round of the competition with different objectives and ambitions as some of them will endeavor to continue their positive results, and remain competitive for top positions while others will try to escape from the relegation zone.

In the first match of this round, leaders Al Ain will host their tenth - placed counterpart Ajman at 5:00pm. The home team will play with full list except Ghanaian striker Asamoah Gyan who is currently participating with his National Team in the African Nations Cup 2013, note that Al Ain have not signed any new foreign players during the Winter Transfer Window against one new contract for Ajman who signed Driss Fettouhi to replace his countryman Absessamad Ouahaki and retained Founeke Sy from Mali, the Iraqi Karrar Jassim and Boris Kabi from Ivory Coast.

Six-placed Al Shabab with 20 points, will play at their home ground when they face Al Wahda who are in 7th position with 18 points, kick off at 5:00pm. Both teams demonstrated different performances and came out with different results in the first round of the league. The hosts retained their four foreign players whereas Al Wahda have signed the French player Erick Menology and Australian defender Deno Degalbik besides Croatian Sardan and Senegalese Papa Waigo and fired Brazilian Marcelinho.

Ittihad Kalba will host their counterpart Bani Yas at their pitch in Sharjah at 5:10 pm, in one of the exciting, important and difficult games. The hosts must change their image after this long stoppage period, note that they are sitting in the penultimate place with 7 points, while Bani Yas will face their rivals with all the hope to stay within the competing teams for the title of this season. Kalba have signed a contract with Zimbabwean professional striker Sadomba to play besides Jordanian midfielder Amer Deeb and Frenchman Gregory and sacked Moroccan Nabil Al Daoudi and Brazilian Sergio. Bani Yas have made a big surprise when they contracted the Swedish striker Wilhelmsson to substitute Moroccan Ismail Benlamalem and join Senegalese Sengahor, Australian Nicholas and Egyptian Mohammed Zidane.

In Dubai exciting derby, Al Wasl will take on their city components Al Nasr at the Zabeel Stadium, kick off at 8:00pm, where both squads have similar ambitions and both are trying to collect full points. Al Nasr are fifth with 22 points, while Al Wasl are in eighth place with 17 points.  Al Nasr have signed a contract with Japanese Morimoto to substitute Iraqi Nashat Akram while their rivals Al Wasl have contracted with Al Ain former striker Mohammed Nasser. The Al Nasser new player will play besides Brazilian Bruno Cesar, Leonardo Lima, in addition to Italian Mascara.

At the conclusion of the first day matches of round 15, Al Jazira and Al Ahli will meet at 8:00pm at Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.Al Jazira have  27 points and are 7 points behind leaders Al Ain and need to win to keep gap between them and the leaders, while Al Ahli have collected 26 points. The game is expected to witness strong competition between the two teams, note that Al Jazira have not made any alterations in the list of their professional players. But Al Ahli have surprised the UAE fans with a deal with Portuguese Quaresma to substitute the Cameroonian Achille Emana.

Two games will be held on Sunday starting with Al Dhafra and Dibba Al Fujairah match at Hamdan bin Zayed Stadium in the Western Region at 05:25 pm. The former, who are 11^th with 15 points are seeking to move away from the relegation zone while the second are at the bottom of the league standings with only 4 points and losing the first match in the second round will make things difficult for them. Dibba Al Fujairah have sacked their Syrian player Abdul Razak Al Hussein and contracted with Ghanaian Samuel Okran.