Dubai: The UAE Football Association announced on Wednesday the launch of the second season of UAE FA Academy League (UAE FAAL), which has been expanded to run with three categories U-18, U-16 and U-14.

The landmark youth football league in it’s inaugural season changed the face of youth football in UAE, enabling for the first time in the UAE for club academies to play competitive matches against top private football academies across the nation.

The announcement was made at a press conference held at the UAE Football Association (UAE FA) headquarters in Dubai on Wednesday.

The press conference was attended by Hisham Al Zarooni, member of the board UAE FA and Chairman of Football Association Academy, Ibrahim Al Nimr Assistant Secretary General UAE FA, Walid Al Hosani, CEO PLC, Dr Khalid Mohammad Abdullah, Managing Director, Football Association Academy, and Hussein Murad, CEO, Inspiratus, the organizers of the UAE FAAL.

With youth football development high on the national agenda, the UAE FAAL has created a highly competitive platform which enables both national club academies and private academies an opportunity to raise the bar of youth football Nimr said: “We recognise that the development of our future stars in football starts today and at UAE FA, we are committed to supporting platforms such as this where our youth experience a high level of competition preparing them to play at national, regional and international standards.”