The UAE expects

Wednesday's Olympic qualifying match is a big moment for UAE football. See you at the stadium!

It could be Emirati football's greatest moment since qualifying for the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy. But you wouldn't guess it from the lack of interest and publicity that the team's next fixture is attracting.

On Wednesday night the UAE Olympic football team plays its final home qualifier, against Australia at Al Jazira stadium in Abu Dhabi. At stake is a place in this year's Olympic Games in London.

In the past, football fans in this country have shown that they can get behind the national team when there's a reason. It happened in 1982 when Zayed Sports City was opened for the Gulf Cup; again during that glorious 1990 qualifying campaign; again in the 1996 Asian Cup (when the UAE lost the final on penalties to Saudi Arabia); and in 2007 when the UAE won the Gulf Cup, also at Zayed Sports City.

But very often, especially during a run of bad results, the fans go missing. Indeed the problem of poor attendance is apparent at the club level as well as the international level, and not even the presence of big name players and managers has altered that reality in a significant way.

This odd record becomes even stranger when you consider that attending football matches in the UAE is very cheap, often even free.

If ever there was a time for football fans in the country to get behind The Whites, it surely is on Wednesday night. Your nation needs your support.