Diego Maradona should have been given more time to turn around fortunes at Dubai’s Al Wasl, the head of the UAE’s Football Association has said.
In comments published by Associated Press, Yousuf al-Sarkal, the president of the UAE Football Association, said he was “disappointed” to hear that Al Wasl had fired Maradona.
Al-Sarkal told AP that the club’s failure to win any trophies and its eighth-place finish in the 12-team league could not be solely blamed on Maradona.
Maradona was fired on Tuesday after one season in charge, having signed a two-year deal in May 2011.
The club’s board of directors resigned in June following the poor season.
The new board initially backed Maradona but on Tuesday announced that he and his technical staff had been relieved of their duties.
“I’m disappointed,” Al-Sarkal was quoted as saying about Maradona’s sacking.
“From my travelling all around the world, people talk about our league because of Maradona. They know the name of the club, the existence of the league because of Maradona. … Of course to have an icon like Maradona in our league, it was bringing a lot of media attention to the UAE as a country and UAE football.”
He added; “We know during the season there were incidents where he was involved. There were incidents involving spectators where he was in the picture and that is not the role of a coach.”
Maradona joined Al Wasl following his firing as the national coach of Argentina, where he had mixed results.
Before becoming coach of his home country in 2008, he coached Argentine clubs Deportivo Mandiyu in 1994 and Racing Club in 1995.
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