The UAE Football Association (FA) have confirmed that the national team will participate in next month's Kirin Cup in Japan, with or without the services of head coach Aad de Mos.
Following last week's news that the FA will not renew the contract of Dutchman De Mos and his assistants, speculation has arisen over who will lead the team at the May 22-27 tournament.
The FA have started negotiations with French coach Bruno Metsu who led Al Ain to the Asian Champions League title two years ago. But the deal is not likely to go through because of the Frenchman's many financial demands.
Metsu, who led Senegal to the final of the 2002 World Cup, has achieved great success in Qatar by taking Al Gharrafah club to the league title.
Khalid Bin Fares, chairman of the FA's technical committee which supervises the national teams, said it was likely that De Mos will lead the team to Japan as his contract only expires in June.
The other possibility is to have a UAE national coach lead the team in the tournament until the FA finds a new coach to prepare the team for the Gulf Cup which they will host in 2007.
The UAE team will gather on May 16, only one day after the final League matches, to prepare for the Kirin Cup. Meanwhile, the Japanese FA have requested UAE to play a second friendly match against their team in Tokyo.
Gulf News
