United Arab Emirates

Home, 2011-13

Made by Italian company Errea, this shirt is quite nice and feels well made.  There is a mesh effect under the arms and on the lower back which is nice, but doesn't add a huge amount to the aesthetics.  The crest is the felt-type that featured on many shirts around this era. I actually really nice badge, using the flag well on a classic shield shape. Here, it is glued and sewn.

For the team, an appearance at Italia 90 and runner up at the 1996 Asian Cup on home soil had arguably been the high points on the bigger international stage until recently, when they reached the Asian Cup semi-finals in 2015 and 2019.  They would lose that latter semi-final to eventual winners Qatar. They have however had greater success in the smaller-scale regional competition, the Gulf Cup of Nations.  A series of third-placed and runner-up spots culminated in going on and winning it in 2007 and 2013. 

It is not surprising that they haven't been a world force, given the country has less than 10 million people, though it is rising dramatically.  That said, many of these are ex-pats. While the oil flows things look rosy in economic terms, but if that goes dry....