Al Ain

Players from the oasis city, Bahraini exchange students and members of the Sudanese community working in the Emirates put the side together in 1968. The name they later took, Al-Zaeem , translates as "the Boss", and the supporters go by Ainawi.

The purple came from somewhere else entirely. At a training camp in Morocco in 1977 the club picked up the shade from Anderlecht, and it stuck — hence the Purple Brigade — worn since with gold and white.

The record in the domestic league is the reason Al Ain are talked about at all in the region: 15 titles, the first in 1976–77. But the two nights that travel best are Asian. Al Ain won the AFC Champions League in 2003, then again in 2023.

The Abu Dhabi Classico against Al Wahda has been running since 8 November 1985. By May 2024 the fixture had been played 110 times, and Al Ain hold the edge with 52 wins to 36. Shabab Al Ahli and Sharjah make life awkward too, though neither carries the same weight in the city.

Home is the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, a 25,965-seat ground; the older Sheikh Khalifa International Stadium, 16,000 seats, still takes matches.