Under a vast amount of time, it was instructed by foreign managers as for instance, Don Revie. It has made one World Cup appearance in 1990 in Italy and lost all three of its games. The United Arab Emirates took fourth place in the 1992 Asian Cup and runner-up in 1996 as host. It also won the Arabian Gulf Cup on two occasions; in 2007 and 2013. It finished third in the 2015 AFC Asian Cup and hosted the 2019 edition which it was eliminated in the semi-finals.
History
The first match of the team was played on 17 March 1972 against Qatar at Riyadh's Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium and won with the only goal scored by Ahmed Chowbi. Then, the team faced three other Arabian countries, losing 4–0 and 7–0 to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait respectively and beating Bahrain 3 to nothing. After participating in four Gulf Cup tournaments since 1972, the United Arab Emirates hosted the 1982 edition. They again finished third, as did in the two previous tournaments.
In 1980, the United Arab Emirates first-time qualified for the AFC Asian Cup which was held in Kuwait. They were drawn with eventual winners, Kuwait, runner-up South Korea, Malaysia and Qatar in Group B. They drew 1–1 with Kuwait but lost the three other matches and finished in fifth place in the group and ninth (out of ten teams) overall. They also qualified for next two tournaments, 1984 in Singapore and 1988 in Qatar and were again eliminated in the group stages in both. Their first victory of the tournament occurred against India on 7 December 1984 under manager Heshmat Mohajerani.
In 1984, Mohajerani resigned and was replaced with Carlos Alberto Parreira. Parreira led the country at the 1988 AFC Asian Cup and left his position after the tournament. He was succeeded by Mário Zagallo. Zagallo led the country to the qualification for the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy. However, Zagallo resigned before the tournament and Parreira returned. The team finished fourth at the 1990 World Cup's final tournament with no points, scoring two goals and conceding eleven goals. The journey was later put into a 2016 documentary titled 'Lights of Rome'.[3] After the tournament, Parreira was sacked.
At the 1992 and 1996 AFC Asian Cups, the United Arab Emirates finished fourth and second respectively for the first times. The United Arab Emirates appeared in the 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup after being awarded a spot because Asian winners Saudi Arabia was hosting the games.
After hiring European coaches, in 2012, United Arab Emirates appointed the Olympic team coach Mahdi Ali as the new manager of the national team. Ali began creating a squad inviting players that he had worked with at youth level. He led the Emirates to their second Gulf Cup title in 2013. At the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, the United Arab Emirates defeated Qatar 4–1 and Bahrain 2–1 and lost to Iran only by a controversial goal that appeared to be offside. As group runner-up, they faced the defending champions Japan in the quarter-final and earned a victory on penalties to advance to the last four. They lost 2–0 to the host Australia in the semi-finals. In the third place play-off, they beat Iraq 3–2. The United Arab Emirates qualified for the of the AFC qualification, where they finished fourth in Group B, thus failing to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Despite this, one of United Arab Emirates players Ahmed Khalil manage to be the top scorer in the qualification along with two other players. Around this time Mahdi Ali resigned from his position.[4]
In 2015, it was announced that the Emirates will host the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, this marks the 2nd time they hosts an AFC Asian Cup. The team had a new coach, the former Asian Cup winning manager Alberto Zaccheroni. In the 2019 Asian Cup tournament, they had an opening 1–1 draw to Bahrain,[5] then salvaged three points against India before drawing Thailand to secure top spot and progress to the round of sixteen.[6] UAE had a tight-fought match against Kyrgyzstan, and had been equalized twice after 90', but a penalty from Ali Mabkhout ensured his team to enter the quarter-finals against then-defending champions Australia.[7] In the quarter-finals, UAE scored its first ever goal against Australia to gain its first ever win against this opponent and eliminated them in process.[8] The semi-finals was seen as a rivalry between the host and Qatar.[9] Some Emirati supporters booed Qatari anthem, and threw footwear in the pitch after Qatar scored their second goal. UAE lost 0–4 marking its first defeat to Qatar since 2001 and ending the chance of seeking entry to the final.[10]
The United Arab Emirates joined the second round of 2022 World Cup qualifiers and was placed with all-out Southeast Asian opponents. The team had already appointed the Dutch guider Bert van Marwijk. Thing didn't come as planned and Bert was sacked after his start suffering two away losses to Thailand and Vietnam in the qualifiers along his early group stage exist in the 24th Arabian Gulf Cup. By the time of his sacking, UAE was 4th in the group but still has the chance to advance.[11]
The rivalry with Qatar is a competitive one in the Arabian Gulf Cup meeting in multiple occasions. As of 2020, Qatar and UAE have played 31 official matches, most of which was held competitively in the Arabian Gulf Cup, it started off with the United Arab Emirates beating Qatar 1–0. They only played 2 friendly games and the last friendly was held in 2011 which ended with an Emirati victory. In the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, hosted by the UAE, Qatar overran the UAE for the first time since 2001 with the result 4–0, with tensions and violence occurred between two and Emirati supporters cheering anti-Qatari chants.[14] UAE was fined $150,000 US dollars for the incident and had to play their first 2022 and 2023 qualification game in closed doors.[15] However, on 21 September, AFC has lifted the ban a few weeks before the match has begun.[16]
Another rivalry is with Saudi Arabia which the UAE took on Arabian Gulf Cup various times, the two teams have met in the AFC Asian Cup twice, first in the semi finals of the 1992 edition which ended in a Saudi victory and second in the final of the 1996 edition in which UAE hosted, the game ended in a goalless draw which meant the game had to be decided in penalties, the game ended with Saudi Arabia taking home their 3rd title with the penalty scoreline being 4–2, this remains the only time the Emirates qualified for the final meanwhile this would also be the last time the Saudis would win an Asian Cup as they would lose the next two finals they qualified for in 2000 and 2007. When the two countries meet in the World Cup or Asian Cup qualifiers, it has been nicknamed "Clash of Titans".[17]
Nicknames
The United Arab Emirates is known by supporters and the media as Al-Abyad, meaning The Whites which reference to their white jersey and also Eyal Zayed which means Zayed's sons. In October 2012, the Asian Football Confederation official website published an article about the UAE national team's campaign to qualify for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, in which the team was referred to as the "Sand Monkeys." This was the indirect result of vandalism of the Wikipedia article on the team, and the AFC was forced to apologise for what was perceived as a racist slur.[18][19]
The United Arab Emirates only appearance at the World Cup was in 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy where they would lose all three of their matches to Yugoslavia, Colombia and West Germany. This lone appearance was put into a 2016 documentary titled 'Lights of Rome'.[3]
^The Indonesia v United Arab Emirates match will be played without spectators following sanctions by FIFA due to fan disturbances in the Indonesia v Malaysia and Indonesia v Thailand matches.[21]
2 (20 June 2024)[1]
United Arab Emirates 1–0 Qatar 
Brunei 0–12 United Arab Emirates 
Kyrgyzstan
Syria
Saudi Arabia
Australia
Iraq
Yemen
Bolivia
Indonesia
Uzbekistan
Jorge Luis Pinto
Mahmoud Fayez
Jerry Tamashiro
Uzbekistan
Vietnam, 14 November 2019
90+2' (pen.)
Malaysia 
Thailand 
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