September 28 – The United Arab Emirates’ Football Association (UAEFA) has cancelled their October 10 friendly against Morocco in what is being interpreted locally as a politically-motivated move to pressurise the Moroccan government to back the UAE’s position over the Qatar crisis.
While the UAE have pulled out of the Morocco fixture, the Egyptian FA announced they had received a request for a friendly from the UAE.
Egypt is supporting the blockade of Qatar and has severed relations with the country. Morocco chose to remain neutral and has historically had close relations with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar.
The UAE said that the fixture was cancelled while the country looked for a replacement for national team manager Edgardo Bauza who has left to manage the Saudi team for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. The UAE just missed out on qualification.
The suspicion that football is being used to exert soft political pressure on Morocco is reinforced following the cancellation in July of the third Morocco-UAE Friendship Cup which is played between the winners of leagues of both countries.
Disputes have risen in other countries over Qatar’s interaction, most notably over accusations of an interference in the media rights of Qatari broadcaster beIN Sport who say the interference of a Saudi Arabian officials at an AFC World Cup qualifier in the country, prevented them exercising their rights as contractually agreed.
Earlier this week Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain failed to attend the draw for the Gulf Cup to be held in Qatar at the end of this year, while a UAE youth team failed to turn up for an AFC match against Qatar and subsequently forfeited the game.
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