Bani Yas U23

The men who run out at Baniyas Stadium under the under-23 badge do so without a coach whose name reaches beyond the training ground.

The parent club, Bani Yas Sports and Cultural Club, gives the youth team everything it has: the sky blue and white, the nickname Al-Smawi, and the ground itself. There is no separate crest for the under-23s. They play under the one the senior side wears.

Baniyas Stadium holds 6,927 for league fixtures, which is small enough that a reserve match does not feel lost in it. The under-23 games take place on the same pitch the first team uses, in front of whoever comes.

What the youth side has not done is win the thing. No U23 Pro League title sits against the Bani Yas name. The trophy is currently held by Al Ain U23, who went into the 2025-26 season defending it, and that is the standard the Abu Dhabi side are measuring themselves against rather than any mark of their own.

So the season's task is straightforward and unglamorous: get minutes into players who might be needed upstairs, and close the gap on Al Ain while doing it.