Surprise Bento dismissal raises questions about rest of UAE World Cup qualifying campaign

DUBAI: It takes something special to top the drama of a 98th-minute winner which kept UAE dreams of automatic World Cup 2026 qualification alive.

But fewer than eight hours after a bandaged Sultan Adil — in just his second appearance for club or country in 2024-25 — produced a brave diving header in Riyadh to salvage a 2-1 triumph against bottom-placed North Korea, a tweet announced the shock news that Paulo Bento’s tenure had ended abruptly.

“The UAE Football Association has decided to dismiss the head coach of the national team, Portuguese Paulo Bento, and his technical staff,” said @uaefa_ae.

Those few words, with no emotion and a strictly businesslike tone, ended a reign that only began in July 2023.

The hard-fought victory at Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium left the UAE third in the third round’s Group A, four points away from a guaranteed return to football’s grandest stage for the first time since 1990 with two fixtures left. Failure to overturn this deficit to second-placed Uzbekistan — their next opponents — in June’s deciders means the team must successfully navigate up to three extra stages.

The question posed by the UAE FA was: “Is this enough?” Their answer — a definitive “no.”

Time will now tell whether this bold call, certainly not without merit, was a correct one.

A clear decision has been made that the 55-year-old, who became South Korea’s longest-serving manager and led Portugal to Euro 2012’s semifinals, was not the man to achieve this goal. Instead, the ninth permanent appointment since Mahdi Ali’s resignation in March 2017 will target this glory.

Bento’s tenure with the Whites featured 14 wins, six draws and six defeats. The nation has not been this close to its second World Cup appearance in