I have been deeply involved in our coverage of the country’s professional soccer league here, known as (of course) the Pro League.

It is fairly remarkable that such a small country has 12 “first division” teams and another 16 in the second division. But there you are. Emiratis in particular love the game (the Indians and Pakistanis, not nearly as much), and some of the country’s richest men spend large sums of money to keep their teams afloat.

(Which reminds me, we did a story on the UAE league’s finances for the Wednesday morning paper. In it we conclude that several of the top division clubs spend more than $10 million a year on players and their coach, and that it will take 30 years for the league to make as much money as it spends.)

So, today, I was moved to ruminate on our local team’s chances in the big soccer event  of the year here — the Fifa Club World Cup, to be contested right here in Abu Dhabi in December. Inter Milan will be here. Barcelina was, a year ago. Yes, Lionel Messi’s team.

The host nation gets a club into the tournament, and this year that would be Al Wahda of Abu Dhabi, and I suggest Wahda will be expected to do something. If it could get as far as a meeting with Inter … it would be the biggest thing to happen in the history of the UAE’s domestic league.

But if it goes out in the first round in the “play-in” match with Oceania champions from New Guinea … well, that would be perhaps a bigger embarrassment than what went down a year ago, when UAE champ Al Ahli lost to Auckland City of New Zealand, an amateur side, 2-0.

Holy mackerel. The UAE football establishment still hasn’t recovered from the embarassment.

So, the country’s soccer panjandrums have decreed that Wahda’s players will not be allowed to play in the Gulf Cup, a regional championship, so that they can stay and keep training with Wahda. To give it the best chance of advancing at least past a team from New Guinea and to a matchup from the club champ from Africa/Asia/North America.

It’s not yet decided who will be the opponent. And the winner of that match gets Inter.

So, there it is. My column. If you read it, the wording may seem a bit strange, and the pacing odd. It’s because,  in my dotage, I am tweaking my writing style to make it (I hope) accessible to Britons who seem to like dense masses of type and close arguments, instead of breezy opinion. Old dog. New trick.