DUBAI // Diego Maradona has promised to build a title-challenging side at Al Wasl after watching the team in action for the first time last week.
Maradona was in the stands at Zabeel Stadium on Sunday when Sharjah stunned the home side with a 2-1 victory, a result which cost Wasl a place in the Asian Champions League next season.
Since the game, the Argentine has held a series of meetings with the club's executives, discussing transfer strategy and recruiting Ali Hassan as his assistant coach.
"After the Sharjah match, we went back to the hotel [with Maradona] and we stayed there until the late hours of the next morning, discussing plans for the next season," Marwan bin Bayat, the chairman, said.
"He told me: 'Do not be disappointed. Whatever happened on the field [in that match], it will never happen next season.' This is his promise and he is ready to do his best next season."
Maradona has already decided to base his pre-season in the UAE, despite invites from a number of European countries to use their training facilities for free.
Discussion on new recruits, both foreigners and locals, are ongoing and bin Bayat expects to make an announcement in the next fortnight. A midfielder and a striker are top of the club's wish list.
The club also unveiled their new logo, with English text, and a mascot, a Panther, for the 2011/12 season at an end-of-season ceremony on Wednesday night, where the officials and champion athletes of the club, across all sports, were honoured.
"The logos reflect the new identity of Al Wasl Club, a new vision," bin Bayat said. "Since we are positioning ourselves to be an international club, we need to reflect our identity through the logo itself."
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UAE rugby in numbers
5 - Year sponsorship deal between Hesco and Jebel Ali Dragons
700 - Dubai Hurricanes had more than 700 playing members last season between their mini and youth, men's and women's teams
Dh600,000 - Dubai Exiles' budget for pitch and court hire next season, for their rugby, netball and cricket teams
Dh1.8m - Dubai Hurricanes' overall budget for next season
Dh2.8m - Dubai Exiles’ overall budget for next season
The Energy Research Centre
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Although they still do, they discovered in 1955 that the Netherlands had a lot of natural gas. “We still had the idea that, by 2000, it would all be nuclear,” said Harm Jeeninga, director of business and programme development at the centre.
"In the 1990s, we found out about global warming so we focused on energy savings and tackling the greenhouse gas effect.”
The energy centre’s research focuses on biomass, energy efficiency, the environment, wind and solar, as well as energy engineering and socio-economic research.
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