Marked for Faisal Al Kamali
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jul 2028
Tempers go at Dibba
Andrigo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Faisal Al Kamali is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Mario Palomino falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 May 2028
Tempers go at Dibba
Andrigo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad29 May 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Faisal Al Kamali is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad29 May 2028
Mario Palomino falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Mar 2028
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Nasser Al Kamali: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match1 Mar 2028
Cup progress for Dibba
A 0‑0 win over Al Jazira, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Squad6 Mar 2028
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Rostyslav Bahlai has just signed for Dibba, and for once the answer mattered.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Tempers go at Dibba
Vincent Sierro was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Faisal Al Kamali is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match1 Mar 2028
Dibba cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Twelve yards, a goalkeeper guessing, and it still did not go in. He will take the next one, and every soul in the ground will hold their breath.
Market6 Mar 2028
He is 20, and nobody at Dibba signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Sep 2027
Nowhere to hide for Dibba
0‑4 against Al Ain, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad20 Sep 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Faisal Al Kamali is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Andrigo 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 Dibba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Saymon has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Boardroom20 Sep 2027
Doors closed at Dibba
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom30 Aug 2027
Pressure builds in the Dibba boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market30 Aug 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Dibba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Abdoulaye Touré is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Saymon 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 Dibba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Aug 2027
At 30 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Mario Palomino falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market23 Aug 2027
Walid Rashid hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al Shabab can pretend not to have heard.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Oumarou Diadje is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Nasser Ismail was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Sultan Al Hashmi has improved at 29, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Sultan Rashid falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Market23 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Al Shabab have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.