Asian Cup 2015: Kuwait, UAE lose valuable preparation time after warm-up cancellation

KUWAIT’S preparations for their Asian Cup opener against Australia suffered a setback when their scheduled warm-up against the UAE was cancelled.

KUWAIT’S preparations for their Asian Cup opener against Australia suffered a setback when their scheduled weekend warm-up clash against the United Arab Emirates was cancelled.

The teams were due to meet in a behind-closed-doors clash on Saturday night at Cbus Super Stadium, the UAE’S Gold Coast training venue.

But the game was called off about five minutes before kick-off after the UAE refused Kuwait’s request to film the match for analysis purposes.

Rather than play the match, UAE had a training game among themselves, while Kuwait went back to their hotel after being denied the chance to conduct their own training session.

In a prepared statement on their website, the UAE Football Association said: “The Kuwaiti delegation has unfortunately declined to adhere to the previous agreement under which an official letter was sent to the Kuwaiti FA on December 15, and clearly stipulated that the match should not be telecast, recorded or open for the media and the public.

“But the Kuwaitis insisted on filming the game and this was against the purposes of the technical staff of the UAE national team.”

Kuwait are due to leave the Gold Coast on Monday for Melbourne ahead of Friday’s Group A Cup date with the Socceroos at AAMI Park.

UAE start their Asian Cup campaign with a Group C clash against Qatar next Sunday in Canberra.

Originally published as Asian Cup 2015: Kuwait, UAE lose valuable preparation time after warm-up cancellation