Mansour praises Jazira Club

Shaikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs and President of the Al Jazira Club Board said Shaikh Mohammed bin Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nayan will chair the club’s recently reshuffled board of directors and will also select and announce its other members within a few days. “We are confident that the new board of Al Jazira under the chairmanship of Shaikh Mohammed bin Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan will live up to the responsibility and the aspirations of Al Jazira’s fans,” Shaikh Mansour said in remarks as General Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces received Shaikh Mohammed bin Hamdan bin Zayed. “We drew up a future strategy based on the team’s ability to have a strong presence in local competitions without resorting to the back lines. This is the biggest challenge that we are going to face regardless of the team’s success in achieving titles. We therefore ask Shaikh Mohammed bin Hamdan to win the third President’s Cup title during the next season which would be an unprecedented success for an Emirati football club,” Shaikh Mansour said. “Among our other future aims is investing in our national players who are the essence of the game in order to boost the local transfer market and enrich the game to improve Emirati football. Now we have the UAE’s best three goal keepers. At Al Jazira, we plan to also engage in the near future in local and regional competitions as serious and strong competitions at the Asian championships demand long experience that are still unavailable for the club. However, we will spare no effort to achieve strong presence (at Asian championships) within years based on patience and careful planning,” Shaikh Mansour added. Shaikh Mansour described Al Jazira’s new coach Paulo Bonamigo as a capable coach saying: “I am confident he will be successful with the team based on his earlier achievements with Al Shabab Club and he will have final word on the assessment and selection of foreign players and no one will interfere in his work.” He described the decision taken by the UAE Football Association’s decision to raise the number of Pro-League clubs to 14 as “a wise decision agreed on by all the UAE’s clubs and is in the interest of the UAE’s football and meets the Asian Football Confederation’s requirements. We will therefore be able to raise UAE’s entries for the AFC Champions League. On Manchester City’s recent win of its first domestic title in over 40 years, Shaikh Mansour said:” This achievement is a source of pride to all Arabs and Muslims. I received congratulations from all Arab and Muslim countries. Manchester City is the club of all Arabs and Muslims. This win is proof to the ability of Arabs to take advantage of all successful investment opportunities based on careful planning.” “There will be changes. Some Man City players will be available for sale if we receive good offers. The club will buy other players,” he said adding that a summer programme will be announced soon for the club’s participation in the Uefa Champions League. “The UAE Olympic football team players should know that each one of them is an ambassador of the UAE at the forthcoming London 2012 Summer Olympics,” he further said.from khaleej times.