The United Arab Emirates Football Association is the governing body of football in the United Arab Emirates. The senior football national team made one World Cup appearance, in 1990 in Italy, won the Gulf Cup in 2007 and the Gulf Cup in 2013, the youth national team claimed the AFC U-19 Cup in 2008.
History
The U-20 national team qualified for the Youth World Championship in 1997 in Malaysia and 2009 in Egypt. They also took part in the 2003 Youth World Championship as UAE were the host country. The U-17 national team qualified for the 1991 World Cup in Italy 1991 and Nigeria 2009. The juniors’ national team won the Gulf Cup in 2006 and 2009, the youth and juniors national teams qualified for the AFC Asian Cups finals in 2010, Winning the 2nd Gulf U-23 championship in Doha 2010, in addition to the 7th Gulf Juniors Championship in Kuwait 2010 and claiming the 16th Asian Games silver medal in China for the first time in the history of the country. The Olympic national team made history by qualifying for the 2012 London Games and the women football national team claimed the West Asian Women Championship title twice in 2010 and 2011. The senior national team advanced to the AFC Asian Cup finals in 1980 in Kuwait and 1984 in Singapore and 1988 in Doha and 1992 in Japan and 1996 in the UAE and 2004 in China and 2007 in Vietnam and Doha 2011, the Olympic national team won the Gulf U-23 Cup 2010 in Doha and claimed the silver medal of the Asian Games, China 2010. At the level of developing the national cadres, the FA chose 2010 as the Year of the National Coach and signed various agreements with experienced national associations in the game for development and training, including Germany, Spain, Czech, Italy and Egypt. The national coaches took over the youth and junior national teams and they were provided with the sufficient financial support to hit the highest levels of success. At the organizational level, the FA hosted the FIFA Club World Cups in 2009 and 2010, the 2009 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup and other friendly and official championships and supported the women football and launched the Futsal in collaboration with sports council within the country. The next step is to organize and host the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup. In 2010, the UAEFA partnered with the Mubadala Development Company to launch the UAEFA Grassroots Festivals, a state-wide campaign to recruit and train young players. In July 2011, a 3-year sponsoring deal was signed with Panasonic. In January 2016, the UAEFA signed a partnership with the United States Sports Academy to provide the Emirati association a football club operators licensing program. In December 2016, the UAEFA renewed its partnership with the Japan Football Association.
Controversies
In February 2017, the UAEFA warned 46 football players about their inappropriate hairstyles that did not conform to its islam-inspired guidelines. In October 2017, the UAEFA requested that the 23rd Arabian Gulf Cup be postponed while the issue with Qatar was being resolved.
