The flow-on effect from historic flooding in the United Arab Emirates has affected this weekend’s A-League Men’s schedule, with Central Coast Mariners vs Adelaide United off due to the Mariners unable to get home in time from Dubai.
The A-Leagues announced the postponement on Thursday afternoon, three days out from the fixture.
The Mariners played the first leg of their AFC Cup inter-zonal play-off against Kyrgyzstan champions Abdish-Ata Kant on Wednesday night.
The Mariners led 1-0 through Brian Kaltack before Abdish-Ata Kant equalised in the third minute of stoppage time through Magamed Uzdenov.
They were scheduled to fly home through Dubai to face Adelaide in Gosford on Sunday at 4:50pm AEST, before playing the return leg of their AFC Cup tie at the same venue next Wednesday at 7pm AEST.
However, Central Coast players, coaches and staff are among large numbers of people and organisations hit by the torrential rain in the United Arab Emirates, which saw flights diverted and cancelled at Dubai International Airport.
In Dubai, operations at the airport, a major travel hub, remain disrupted after Tuesday’s storm flooded the runway, resulting in flight diversions, delays and cancellations.
The airport said on Thursday morning it had resumed receiving inbound flights at Terminal 1, used by foreign carriers, but that flights continue to be delayed and disrupted.
Emirates, the single largest carrier at the airport, said it would resume checking-in passengers in Dubai at 9am (3pm AEST) on Thursday, delaying the restart from midnight by nine hours.
The A-Leagues announcement confirmed the inability to proceed with Sunday’s match.
“Due to the Central Coast Mariners’ flight cancellations from Dubai Airport en route back from Kyrgyzstan, and re-routing of flights due to the adverse weather conditions in the region, the Round 25 A-League Men fixture scheduled for this Sunday needs to be postponed,” the league’s statement said.
“We will share more information in the coming days on the rescheduled date following further consultation with clubs, FA and based on AFC Cup fixturing.”
ABC/Reuters