Last week, Arab Cup championship ended when Morocco won the final match against Libya.
This tournament has failed to match the success of the previous tournaments. The Union of Arab Football Associations (UAFA) decided to bring it back to life, after its irregular holding of events in the past. But the association has chosen an unbelievably bad timing. It could have been an important championship to many Arabs and, needless to say, it has wasted an opportunity to even gain income.
Since Saudi Arabia was the host of this event, I wished Saudi Football Federation influenced UAFA into rechecking its calendar.
The timing of the tournament was off in many ways. First, it was scheduled at the end of the season when the players were already very tired and due for a much needed rest.
Saudi team coach Frank Rijkaard said that he did not plan to utilize the main players, rather he will form a new team just to try it out. Many teams followed suit for different reasons. I say, the federation has subjected itself to being treated as merely a fun game.
Second, many teams declined to participate because they are either competing in the World Cup or has simply lost interest for it. Obviously, the tournament lacked attention and attendance. As a matter of fact, not a match was able to come up with a full attendance. I bet that the companies that sponsored this event are gravely disappointed. It could have turned out so much better if only there was better timing. If merely scheduling an event is already done thoughtlessly, then I can only imagine what other bigger tasks are there to be dealt with in order to have a succesful football. How do we expect this championship to be treated seriously when it was scheduled to coincide with Euro 2012? And how would the Saudi national team win when the players do not want to play? And who can blame them? We took away their only chance to rest and have a vacation. Players are humans and not machines, training every day takes a toll on them too.
We all know that this tournament was scheduled in haste only recently. The result is a team winning with only its second best players. No one took the tournament seriously to heart, a waste of good potentials and opportunities. What could have been a serious championship turned out to be merely a fun run.
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