Football - UAE coach quits after World Cup qualifying defeat

Mahdi Ali resigned as United Arab Emirates coach after his team lost 2-0 to Australia in World Cup qualification yesterday. The result left UAE four points behind the Socceroos in Group B of the third round of Asian qualifying, and the team faces an increasingly difficult task to secure a place at next year's finals in Russia. Ali, 51, had been in charge of UAE's senior side since 2012 and has previously coached four different age groups of the country's youth teams. "Now is the time for me to leave," he told a post-match news conference in Sydney. "I resigned before the Iraq game, [but] the federation asked me to stay. After five years, I did my best." Ali guided UAE to a surprise penalty-shootout victory over Japan in the quarter-finals of the 2015 Asian Cup, before his team bowed out at the hands of hosts and eventual winners Australia in the last four.