Al Jazira and Bani Yas to kick off Asian continental cup campaign

Reigning Etisalat Pro League champions Al Jazira, runners-up Bani Yas and third-placed Al Nasr will join Al Shabab in the AFC Champions League (CL) group stage, which gets under way today. Al Shabab started playing in the continental competition two weeks ago, when they won promotion from the preliminary round by beating Neftchi from Uzbekistan 3-0 in a play-off in Dubai. Bani Yas host Al Arabi from Qatar today at 6.50pm, but they will be missing the services of three of their best players who are in Turkey with the UAE Olympic team for their training camp ahead of the crucial 2012 London Olympic Games qualifier against Uzbekistan in Tashkent next week. The trio are Amr Abdul Rahman, Mohammad Fawzi and Ahmad Ali. The UAE FA, however, responded positively to the club's request to allow midfielder Habboush Saleh and defender Mohammad Jaber to leave the camp and join Bani Yas for tonight's match before rejoining their international colleagues the same night. Gabriel Calderon, the Bani Yas head coach, said the team would miss the services of the three players, but would have to do their best against Al Arabi. "Our ranks are not complete, but we are ready to do our best in the opener of our campaign in the competition," he said. Bani Yas will instead rely upon the services of experienced players like Ali Masri, Nawaf Mubarak, Sultan Al Ghafiri and Adnan Hussain, in addition to their foreign professionals, Andre Senghor, Francesco Yeste, Esmail Bouzid and Fawzi Bashir, to win the match against the Qatari club in their first participation in the AFC CL's new incarnation. They previously participated in the AFC Clubs Competition once in the 1990s. Al Ghafiri said yesterday, "We will show our best and I do believe that will be good enough to win the points." Bani Yas will play in Group B, which also includes former AFC CL champions Al Ittihad from Saudi Arabia, who won the title in 2004 and 2005, and Bakhtakor from Uzbekistan. Al Jazira, who will compete in Group A with Al Rayyan from Qatar, Estighlal from Iran and Uzbekistan's Nasaf, start their campaign away against Nasaf today (6.30pm). Al Jazira will also miss their players with the UAE Olympic team — Khamis Esmail, Waleed Al Hammadi, Ali Mabkhoot and Khalid Eisa. Al Nasr will compete in Group C with Al Ahli from Saudi Arabia, Sepahan from Iran and Lekhwiya from Qatar, while Al Shabab will compete in Group D against Al Hilal from Saudi Arabia, Al Gharafa from Qatar and Piroozi Athletic from Iran. Al Nasr will play in Iran against Sepahan and Al Shabab will host Al Gharafa in their first matches tomorrow. From gulfnews