Al Ain Sports and Cultural Club fields a prominent UAE Pro League team that has had a wretched season. Two key South Americans quit the team just before the season, and Al Ain has had trouble replacing them with anyone who has been able to stay healthy. Exacerbating matters, their promising young goalkeeper was nearly killed in a traffic accident back in September and may never play again, and the Emirati coach who started the season running the team was not up to the task.

Al Ain has plunged to 11th place in a 12-team league that relegates the bottom two, and the idea that the team — which has won nine league titles, more than anyone else — could be sent down to the second tier for the first time in club history is mind-boggling. Think of Manchester United being relegated.

So, perhaps we can forgive club management for getting excited when Al Ain defeated Al Wasl, a Dubai club, 3-2, in a wacky match I covered last night for The National, to advance to the finals of the Etisalat Cup — sort of the Carling Cup of the UAE.

This is the announcement they sent out to media this afternoon:

Assuring that Al Ain’s Faithful Fans are Still Loyal to the Covenant, Mohammed Bin Thaloob Congratulates the Fans for reaching the Final of Etisalat Cup.

H.E. Mohammed Bin Thaloob, Member of the Board of Directors of Al Ain Sports & Cultural, congratulated each of the fans, Players, technical department, administration department and all the lovers of Al Ain Club for reaching the final of Etisalat Cup and for the efforts the team have done against Al Wasl in the Semi-Final match of this Championship, which reflects the players’ self-confidence and responsibility for the history and the name of Al Ain Club. He also, assured that the performance level presented by the players was not a surprise because it is the real performance level of Al Ain that is coming back again to the correct way.

H.E pointed out that the fans played major role in supporting and uniting the team and in standing next to it in all events and occasions to reach the high levels of success in the next phase. In addition, He assured that wide and great fans basis not only over the country level, but also all over Gulf Area. Moreover, the presence of Al Ain fans has a major role in supporting the Club within its walk. Also he asked the fans for more support and gathering in the next match against the Japanese team whose players are quick and has fighting spirit.

The Member of the Board of Directors of Al Ain Sports & Cultural added that the victory against Al Wasl in yesterday match and reaching the final match of Etisalat Cup against Al Shabab will certainly has a great effect in elevating the players’ morale for the next match against the Japanese team in the AFC Champions and the coming matches of the General League. He also assured that Al Ain is coming back to the right bath and its natural status locally, regionally, and internationally, receiving every possible support from the management of the Club and the fans who are still loyal to the Club all the way.

Translation?

“Thanks, fans, for sticking with the club. Beating Al Wasl is something we expect to do, and so is playing for domestic championships. We’ve also got the Asian Champions League going on, and please support us during that, too.”

“H.E.” means “his excellency,” a convention we don’t follow here at The National, though some other papers do. And “covenant” at the top can safely be assumed to mean “relationship” — the fans support and the club wins, being the nature of this particular covenant.

It looks as if the message were run through a translation program. A little rocky, isn’t it?

Just wanted to give you an idea of some of the difficulties of covering a team in the UAE in an English-language newspaper. Of the six reporters covering the match last night, I was the only one writing in English, and special translations had to be made for me, the one non-Arabic speaker.

Anyway, Al Ain is about 100 miles from Abu Dhabi, but about 600 fans made the trip to the capital to see the match at the Al Wahda stadium, and they were noisy, verging on rowdy. Al Ain has a reputation for being the best-supported club in the country, and getting that sort of turnout during a wretched season was nice.

Clearly, club management thought so, too. And they want to let everyone know Al Ain is “coming back to the right bath.” Or path.