Al Nasr to play home fixtures at Zabeel Stadium

Arabian Gulf League club Al Nasr will play their home fixtures in the new season at Al Wasl's Zabeel Stadium, as they build a brand new stadium, the club confirmed to the Khaleej Times.

Al Nasr's Al Maktoum Stadium is to be completely removed and the club are set construct a new stadium, in accordance with AFC guidelines, for the AFC Asian Cup to be held in the UAE in 2019. The Al Maktoum Stadium is one of the eight venues that will host matches during the competition. The other venues are Zayed Sports City Stadium, Al Jazira's Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium, Al Wahda's Al Nahyan Stadium, Al Ain's Hazza bin Zayed Stadium and Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium, Sharjah Stadium and the Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum Stadium, formerly the fortress of Al Shabab.

The club management, chaired by Ahmed Hashim Khoury, vice chairman of the Al Nasr Club, met last week to discuss the preparations for the season.

"Construction work will start in August. Al Nasr will play all the home matches at Al Wasl's Zabeel Stadium," Al Nasr media co-ordinator Mohammed Mubarak, who is with the squad on their pre-season camp in Hungary, told the Khaleej Times.

The new stadium will have a substantial increase in capacity with the previous arena able to accommodate 12,000 spectators.

The squad are currently in Hungary after their first phase of preparations in Slovenia. Once the squad returns, they will train at the club's training ground and then play their home matches at the Zabeel Stadium.

The AFC Asian Cup is scheduled to take place from January 5 to February 1, 2019 at the eight venues in four host cities.

Eleven of 24 teams have already qualified for the tournament, with UAE automatically qualifying as the host country. The UAE had finished an impressive third in the previous edition held in Australia.

Meanwhile, Al Nasr have signed Brazilian striker Marcelo Cirino on loan, the club confirmed on their official twitter handle.

The 25-year-old Cirino successfully passed the medical and linked up with the squad on their pre-season camp in Hungary. He was presented with the No.11 jersey previously worn by Burkina Faso midfielder Jonathan Pitroipa, by coach Cesare Prandelli.

Cirino joins from Brazilian club Flamengo and Al Nasr have the option to buy the striker after his season-long loan comes to an end next June. Cirino joins striker Wanderley, Moroccan midfielder Abdelaziz Barrada and Lebanese defender Joan Oumari to complete Al Nasr's foreign quartet.

Cirino began his career with Atletico Paranaense in 2009 before being loaned out to Vitoria. After five seasons with Atletico Paranaense, Cirino moved to Flamengo in 2015.

Source: Khaleej Times