UAE Pro League Committee sets August 3rd for AGLeague and Cup Draw
The Pro League Committee announced the that draw for the 2017/18 pro clubs season will take place at 16:30 on Thursday the 3rd of August at the UAE FA headquarters' ballroom in Dubai with the participation of 12 clubs.
The participating teams are: Arabian Gulf League Champions Al Jazira, runners-up Al Wasl, the newly named Shabab Al Ahli Dubai, Al Ain, Al Wahda, Al Nasr, Al Dhafra, Sharjah, Hatta, Dibba, Emirates and newly promoted Ajman.
In an eddort by the PLC to ensure equal opportunities and a fair competition, as well as to have strong fixtures distributed evenly across the season, the Arabian Gulf Cup draw will take place in three stages. Last season's Arabian Gulf League Champions Al Jazira and Arabian League Cup Champions Al Ahli will head the two groups based on a draw. The second stage sees the top six teams in last season's league table (besides Al Jazira and Al Ahli) will be drawn one at a time into the two groups. Finally, the third stage sees the remaining teams drawn into the two groups.
According to the new Arabian Gulf Cup format, each group contains six teams, the top four of each group progress to the two-legged quarter-final and on to a two-legged semi-final then the one-legged final.
In the Arabian Gulf League, the draw takes place in two stages, the first includes the top six trams from last season while the second includes the teams ranked 7th to 12th.
