From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Mohamed Khalfan out for 96 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al Shaab will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match7 Oct 2026
The small margins put Al Shaab out
Out, 0‑1 to Al Shabab, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match10 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Al Shaab
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The terraces12 Oct 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 7 of the 29 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad12 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al Shaab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Saeed Al Menhali is 16, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 26 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match10 Oct 2026
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
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From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Mohamed Khalfan out for 103 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al Shaab will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match3 Oct 2026
5 matches without a win for Al Shaab
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Al Shaab are no longer polite ones.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ahmed Suqrat is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al Shaab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Al Shaab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Caputo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Mohamed Khalfan out for 110 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al Shaab will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Fahad Al Suwaidi is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Al Shaab's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al Shaab has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al Shaab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Sep 2026
3 matches without a goal for Al Shaab
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Al Shaab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edwar Bracho is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Loan watch28 Sep 2026
“I watch every Al Shaab game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sharjah runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match26 Sep 2026
Point won or two lost for Al Shaab?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Al Ain? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Mohamed Khalfan out for 117 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al Shaab will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Saeed Khalfan is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Franco Caputo 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Hamad Obaid has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Al Shaab have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Match19 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
10 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
5.75 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Mohamed Khalfan out for 124 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al Shaab will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Walid Abdulrahman
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Shaab lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match12 Sep 2026
Nowhere to hide for Al Shaab
0‑3 against Dibba, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Franco Caputo 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Walid Abdulrahman
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Shaab lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market7 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Hamdan Rashid to Al Fujairah has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Al Shaab with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Franco Caputo 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Graduation day at Al Shaab
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Market7 Sep 2026
One of our own: Saeed Omar joins the Al Shaab first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Saeed Omar is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market7 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Fahad Rashid has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
Spartak Moscow arrived with $9.1M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Walid Abdulrahman damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 36 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $9.1M sale of Ahmed Al Menhali
He is going to Spartak Moscow, the club has $9.1M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market31 Aug 2026
Hamdan 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 Shaab can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Mohamed Khalfan 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Al Shaab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yadir Meneses is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market24 Aug 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al Shaab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Walid Al Bloushi 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Al Shaab would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Zamalek moved on, Ahmed Al Menhali reports back to Al Shaab, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Mohamed Khalfan 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Al Shaab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Walid Al Bloushi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Market17 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: AE Kition have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Fahad Al Suwaidi. The answer from Al Shaab has not changed — yet.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mohamed Al Hammadi and Al Shaab agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market10 Aug 2026
The deal that would have taken Ahmed Suqrat to Al Jazira has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Al Shaab with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ahmed Al Menhali and Al Shaab agree another 5 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Mohamed Khalfan 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 Aug 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ahmed Al Menhali trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market10 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Hamdan Rashid has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Al Shaab.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al Shaab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Walid Al Bloushi 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.