Roberto Mancini Addresses Ali Al-Bulaihi’s Exclusion and Japan’s Complaints Ahead of World Cup Qualifiers in Saudi Arabia

The Italian Roberto Mancini, the coach of the first Saudi national football team, revealed the secret of the “exclusion” of Ali Al-Bulaihi, the defender of Al-Hilal, from the list for the matches against Japan and Bahrain.

Saudi Arabia will host the Japanese national football team at the “Radiant Jewel” Stadium in Jeddah, tomorrow evening, Thursday, before meeting Bahrain, on the 15th of this month, in the third and fourth round of the group stage of the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup.

Mancini explained at the press conference before the Japan game, on Wednesday night, that it was a technical decision without Al-Bulaihi. Says: “The player is not at his level at the moment.”

The Italian coach confirmed that he will call up defender Al-Zaeem Al-Hilali, as well as fellow striker Abdullah Al-Hamdan, to the Saudi national team roster in the future. As long as they regain their level and reach full technical and physical readiness.

Regarding the Japanese national team’s complaint about the high temperatures in Saudi Arabia; Mancini responded, saying: “That’s why we chose Jeddah to host the game … the weather is better than the rest of the Kingdom’s cities.

Roberto Mancini repeated his same complaint, which he talks about in almost every press conference. That is that the stars of the Saudi national team do not “participate” with their clubs, and that the Kingdom’s teams are responsible for their basic formation on a percentage between 50 and 60% of foreign professionals.

Apart from this complaint, Mancini denied that there was any other problem with the Saudi national team, denying the news that spread about his difficulty communicating with the players, on because of the language factor, or the translator delivering wrong information to them.

It is worth noting that the Japanese national team leads the third group of qualifications, with 6 points from two wins, two points behind Saudi Arabia “in second place”, which tied with Indonesia in the first round, before winning against China.