The United Arab Emirates football federation on Sunday accused the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) of racism for describing its team as "sand monkeys." "We express our strong resentment over the use of this bad description by the AFC website," in a match report, the UAE federation secretary general Yusuf Abdullah said in a statement.
"What happened is unacceptable and shows disrespect to others. It is a proof of racist attitudes that are starting to surface," he said, demanding "a quick official apology." The UAE football team is usually referred to as "Al-Abyad", or the whites, based on the colour of their outfit.