Association football is the most popular sport in theUnited Arab Emirates.^[1] The UAE has teams and players at both club and international level.^[2] Around 50% of the people in the United Arab Emirates consider themselves football fans. The onlyAsian Football Confederation countries with an equal or higher percentage areIndonesia,Malaysia,Saudi Arabia,Singapore,South Korea andVietnam.^[3]

TheUnited Arab Emirates Football Association (UAEFA), the governing body for the sport in the UAE, was founded as recently as 1971, affiliating toFIFA in 1974.^[4] A "test" league was run by the formed body in 1973–74 season in order to determine a format for competitive association football in the country. The competition was won byAl-Oroba, with the triumph recognised as official in 2001 by the UAEFA.^[5] TheUAE Football League as it is known, includes the top flightUAE Arabian Gulf League withAl Ain the only club with fourteen title wins.^[5]UAE Division 1 currently acts as the UAE's 2nd tier competition with two clubs getting promoted andUAE Second Division League was established in 2019 to act as the UAE's 3rd tier competition.

UAE has seen a number of overseas players and coaches imported. Amongst the names to compete have beenParaguayan internationalRoberto Acuña, formerInternazionaleMohamed Kallon and 2006FIFA World Player of the YearFabio Cannavaro. In 2011,David Trezeguet andDiego Maradona joined as player and coach respectively.^{[citation needed]}

No fewer than six knockout cup competitions have been competed for in the UAE, although only three of these remain in existence. The Emir Cup, now called theUAE President's Cup began at the same time as the league and has been established as an annual contest since 1978–79.^[6] More recent additions to the calendar have been theEtisalat Emirates Cup and theUAE Super Cup, a one-off match between the league winners and the President's Cup winners. Some defunct competitions are theFederation Cup, an irregular competition, theUAE Vice Presidents Cup and theUAE FA Cup.^{[citation needed]}

TheUnited Arab Emirates national football team, nicknamed Al Abyad, made their first appearance in 1972.

Al Abyad first appeared at theAFC Asian Cup in1980 when it was eliminated in the first round. Two more first round exits followed before the team finished fourth in1992. In1996, as hosts, UAE topped their group and then won games againstIraq andKuwait to set up a final againstSaudi Arabia. The match ended in a 0–0 draw but UAE lost on penalties.^[7]

The team qualified for three of the four subsequent tournaments and did not advance beyond in the first round in any of those appearances.^{[citation needed]}

In2015 they finished second in their group and advanced to the Knockout stage for the first time since1996. They knocked out the defending Asian Cup championsJapan in the quarter-finals before losing in the semi-finals toAustralia. They then beatIraq in the Third Place match.^{[citation needed]}

The UAE has hosted the Asian Cup for the second time in 2019. The UAE started the group stages by finishing first right aboveThailand andBahrain, they would beatKyrgyzstan at extra time and knock out the defending Asian Cup champions,Australia, in the quarter-finals twice in a row and would lose in the semi-finals toQatar making it the second time in a row the Emiratis would lose in the semi-finals. Some threw shoes and bottles at the Qatari team and some booed the Qatari national anthem.^[8]

The UAE have qualified for theFIFA World Cup only once, appearing at the1990 tournament. They were placed into Group D alongside leading European teamsWest Germany andYugoslavia as well as South AmericansColombia. The team lost all three matches, 2–0 to Colombia, 5–1 to West Germany and 4–1 to Yugoslavia.

UAE are also members of theUnion of Arab Football Associations (UAFA) and take part in their competitions. This avenue of competition had provided the UAE with two international trophies, first being the18th Arabian Gulf Cup which they hosted and won and the second being the21st Arabian Gulf Cup which was held in Bahrain.^[9]

Both theunder-19s and theUnder-17s have been champions, the former winning the AFC tournament in 2008 and the latter the Gulf tournament in 2009. Awomen's team also competes.^{[citation needed]}

The leading UAE club sides compete in the annualAFC Champions League. Al-Ain became the sole UAE team to win the competition in the2002-03 season, defeatingThailand'sBEC Tero Sasana 2–1 on aggregate in a two legged final. The club reached the final again in2005 but lost to the Saudi clubAl Ittihad. Ten years later in2015,Al Ahli would become the second UAE club to reach the final only to lose 0–1 on aggregate toGuangzhou Evergrande, a year later Al Ain will reach the final for the third time in2016 only to lose toJeonbuk 2–3 on aggregate.^{[citation needed]}

TheGCC Champions League, a tournament for the leading Arab clubs from states on theArabian Gulf, has been won by UAE clubs on eight occasions -Al Shabab in 1992, 2011 and 2015, Al Ain in 2001,Al Jazira in 2007 andAl Wasl in 2010,Baniyas in 2013 andAl Nasr in 2014.^{[citation needed]}

In August 2008 theAbu Dhabi United Group purchased theEnglishPremier League clubManchester City, installingMansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan asowner andKhaldoon Al Mubarak as chairman. With the wealth of the ruling family of theEmirate of Abu Dhabi behind them the club became effectively the richest in the world.^[10]

• List of football stadiums in the United Arab Emirates

• Football in the United Arab Emirates

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