ASIAN FOOTBALL CONFEDERATION CALLS UAE TEAM 'SAND MONKEYS' AND APOLOGIZES SAYING IT WAS A MISTAKE

Error: The AFC has apologized for referring to the UAE as the 'Sand Monkeys'

The Asian Football Confederation has apologized for mistakenly referring to the United Arab Emirates national team as the 'Sand Monkeys.'
The mistake in an article on the AFC website set off a storm of criticism in the Gulf country.
The UAE Football Association's Yousuf Abdulla demanded an apology and called the wording an 'unfortunate affair' which 'revealed some racist acts by some AFC officials'.

The AFC said it wanted to 'apologise for any hurt this might have caused to the UAE Football Association and UAE football fans.'

The AFC called it a 'genuine mistake' inserted by a new writer who saw 'Sand Monkeys' wrongly listed as the team's nickname on its Wikipedia page.

The team's actual nickname is Al Abyad, or The White, and the Wikipedia page has been corrected.

The AFC's statement read: 'The AFC apologises for an editorial mistake in which the UAE National Team was inadvertently referred to by an inaccurate nickname on the AFC's official website www.the-afc.com in the article "UAE to take cautious approach" dated 12 October 2012.'

Criticism: Emirati player Diab Awana (right) vies with Fahed Ibrahim of Kuwait at Al-Nahayan stadium in Abu Dhabi

'The error, which was mainly because of referral to a popular web-based encyclopaedia by the concerned editor, was corrected immediately after it was noticed.
'The AFC would like to apologise for any hurt this might have caused to the UAE Football Association and UAE football fans.'
'The UAE FA are one of the AFC's valued Member Associations and the AFC will continue to extensively cover the UAE National Team and UAE League activities.'