The Damac Gazette
Squad3 Jul 2028
Jonathan Okita in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Damac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Jul 2028
Al-Qadisiyah are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Damac will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
$5.4M of the owner's money at Damac
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
No signings allowed at Damac
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
The Damac debt reaches $23.0M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Damac lose Ehsan Rezaeian
42 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
$2.5M on the table at Damac
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Jonathan Okita has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Damac will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad3 Jul 2028
No hiding place for Nawaf Al-Bishri
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nawaf Al-Bishri, and the manager let it.
In brief
- Market 11 months and counting on Abdulaziz Al-Shahrani
- Market The Tariq Abdullah story refuses to die