Dubai: Al Nasr coach Walter Zenga was met with applause at yesterday's conference to launch the 2011/12 Etisalat Pro league, when he suggested that the failure of local players to fully professionalise, was behind the club and country's poor results abroad.
Asked how to combat poor performance from the UAE national team and clubs participating in the Asian Champion League, the former Italy goalkeeper said: "Every time the focus is on the foreign players or coaches to come in and improve teams but the question is when will local players take responsibility and start to improve themselves?"
"There's a connection in the level of football between the national team and Champions League and that's professionalism."
The former Inter Milan stalwart, who has also coached Al Ain and Al Nassr Riyadh, as well as Red Star Belgrade and Steaua Bucharest, added: "Professionalism means that if I'm a professional player I'm totally full [in commitment] for the club. I don't have another job, finish at four then arrive to training tired. If I want to take training in the morning I can't because of players at University."
"If these points can be resolved then I think we can arrive at a good stage either for the national team or our clubs in the Champions League. From my experience, the solution to all these problems is the simple word of professionalism."
