UAE sacks Paulo Bento

The UAE Football Association announced through official channels such as social media (SNS) X and Instagram that "We are dismissing our national team's coach Paulo Bento and the coaching staff."

This decision was made immediately after the victory over North Korea. In the two matches in Group A of the 2026 FIFA World Cup Asia's third qualifying round held in March, the UAE recorded one win and one loss. After losing 0-2 in an away game against Iran on the 21st, they won 2-1 in the match against neutral Saudi Arabia on the 26th against North Korea.

The UAE is in third place in the group, following Iran and Uzbekistan. Iran has already passed the third qualifying round and has been confirmed to advance directly to the main tournament. Uzbekistan is in second place in the group with 17 points, while UAE is in third place with 13 points. When all 10 matches are played, the second place or higher in the group will advance to the main tournament, while the third and fourth places can continue their final challenge in the fourth preliminary round.

Currently, UAE has secured at least a spot in the fourth preliminary round with a 7-point difference in points from Kyrgyzstan, which is in fifth place in the group. If they win two matches against Uzbekistan (home) and Kyrgyzstan (away) in June, they could reclaim second place in the group.

In the meantime, the dismissal of coach Bento, who had four wins, one draw, and three losses, seems a bit excessive.

It seems that the considerably negative local public opinion influenced the dismissal. UAE's performance was not great, except for winning both matches against rival Qatar. In particular, although they defeated North Korea on the 26th, the score was 1-1 until the end of the second half, and the reaction got worse as they barely won with Sultan Adil's winning goal in the 8th minute of extra time.