LONDON: The crackdown on edgy haircuts in the UAE's Arabian Gulf League continued this week when another player was fined for his chosen style.
Ajman's Hassan Zahran was fined 1,000 dirhams ($272) by the UAE's FA disciplinary committee after it deemed the haircut breached their regulations on "unusual hairstyles and cuts or hair color."
"The disciplinary committee fines Ajman player Hassan Zahran 1,000 dirhams and issues him a disciplinary notice for his haircut," read an FA statement.
The Emirati defender is not the first player with a fancy hairdo to fall foul of the UAE FA's rulebook. Last month, Al-Ain’s Brazilian player Caio was fined the same amount for sporting an "unethical haircut" during a game. And that
came a week after the federation punished Moroccan Murad Batna, of Al-Wahda, with a similar fine for exactly the same offense.
"This is getting ridiculous," tweeted Middle East football writer Shuaib Ahmed
The trio are not the first players to fall foul of the AGL’s strict rules on haircuts.
The highest profile case involved Ghana’s former Sunderland forward Asamoah Gyan who was also found guilty of having “unethical hair” under UAE FA guidelines last year.
The 31-year-old Ghanian was one of 46 players found to have breached the rules on inappropriate hairstyles in a league where referees are responsible for deciding whether a player’s hairstyle is in keeping with the “country’s cultural norms.”
“These type of cuts with the side of the head shaved are not aligned with the country’s cultural norms," Ahmed told Arab News. "It came up last season and since then, the league committee have started taking it seriously.”
It happens in other Middle East countries too, such as Saudi Arabia. Back in 2012, Waleed Abdullah was told to cut his “un-Islamic” hair by the referee before being allowed on the pitch to play for his side Al-Shabab.
UAE footballers will think twice about next trip to barbers after third player is fined this year for his haircut
UAE footballers will think twice about next trip to barbers after third player is fined this year for his haircut
Aston Martin says its car risks giving drivers ‘nerve damage’ and can’t finish F1 season-opener
- Aston Martin has predicted it is unlikely to finish Formula 1’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix without its drivers risking suffering permanent nerve damage
MELBOURNE: Aston Martin has predicted it is unlikely to finish Formula 1’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Sunday without its drivers risking suffering permanent nerve damage.
Adrian Newey, the F1 car design great who’s heading into his first race as Aston Martin’s team principal, said Thursday the team’s Honda power unit causes vibrations which could damage the hands of drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll. Neither will likely be able to tolerate even half of the 58-lap race distance, Newey added.
Aston Martin had a poor preseason, often slower even than new team Cadillac and it logged the fewest laps of all 11 teams.
“That vibration (transmitted from Honda’s power unit) into the chassis is causing a few reliability problems,” said Newey.
“Mirrors falling off the air, tail lights falling off, that sort of thing, which we are having to address. But, the much more significant problem with that is that that vibration is transmitted ultimately into the driver’s fingers.
“So Fernando is of the feeling that he can’t do more than 25 laps consecutively before he will risk permanent nerve damage into his hands. Lance is of the opinion that he can’t do more than 15 laps before that threshold.
“We are going to have to be very heavily restricted on how many laps we do in the race until we get on top of the source of the vibration — and to improve the vibration at source.”
Despite the long list of issues, Newey says the AMR26 car has tremendous potential as F1 starts a new era of regulations.
He argued the chassis is F1’s fifth-best behind the expected top-teams Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull and that, following an aggressive development program, has the potential to run at the front at some point in 2026.
Alonso, though, is keeping the faith until Friday practice in Melbourne, where he believes fixes on the car might provide a sunnier outlook.
“For us, it’s just vibrating everything,” the two-time F1 champion said.
“But it’s not only for us. The car is struggling a little bit, so that’s why we have some issues, some reliability problems that made our days slightly short.
“Since (pre-season testing in) Bahrain, there were a couple of tests done and some of the solutions are implemented on the car now, so (I’m) curious to see what (happens) tomorrow (and) if we can improve.”
Its disappointing performance has been variously attributed to a compressed design time due to late arrival; Honda’s need to rebuild its research and development capabilities after leaving Red Bull, the challenge of producing a new in-house gearbox, and the team running a so-far unproven fuels partner in Aramco.
But it’s the side effects that will likely sideline its cars early in Sunday’s race at Albert Park.
