I have been organizing coverage of the national soccer league here, as well as the UAE’s various national teams … and the country is on the threshold of some really significant achievements.

Which says something, considering that in a country of 7 million the national teams come only from those with citizenship — Emiratis — and they make up only about 1 million. Which means perhaps 500,000 males.

And they are going head to head with Asian powers such as the Koreas.

Thinking this through, I decided to try to sum up what is going on, in a column for The National.

And you can find that column here. 

The short of it:

The UAE’s Olympic team (the U23s) play for the gold medal in the Asian Games on Thursday.

The national team, that part of it not off with the U23s in China, looks like a contender in the Gulf Cup in Yemen, and the Gulf Cup is a big deal in this region — the seven Arab nations on the penisula, plus Iraq. The UAE tied Iraq 0-0 in the opener, which is a bigger deal than it might look because Iraq is the defending Asian champion … and because iraq had a penalty in the 87th minute and the UAE keeper saved it.

And then coming up is the Fifa Club World Cup, in which the Abu Dhabi side Al Wahda is entered because the host country gets a slot. Inter Milan will be here, and if Wahda can defeat the longshot side from Papua New Guinea and the Asian champions Seongnam from South Korea … they would get the high-profile match against the Euro champs.

So, a bunch of big possibilities all of a sudden for UAE football, which was a splendid failure in the 2010 World Cup qualifying. It would be a big deal in this little patch of the world.