Mancini in spotlight as off-field issues dampen Saudi Arabia’s Asian Cup bid

Few expected that the big issue in the opening days of the Asian Cup would be centred around the Saudi Arabian camp but there are already concerns that the team’s chances of winning the trophy for the first time since 1996 could be derailed.

The head coach, Roberto Mancini, excluded three senior players from the squad, accusing them of picking and choosing when they wanted to play for the national team. The trio have strongly denied the Italian’s claims. The recriminations may continue for some time even if a 96th-minute winning goal from Ali al-Bulaihi against Oman on Tuesday in the Asian Cup may help to calm the situation.

Related: Asian Cup roundup: Saudi Arabia recover to beat Oman with late winner

It may be that it is not the skills of the big-name foreign stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo that take Saudi Arabian football to the next level but their never-ending demand for the utmost professionalism and highest standards. There have been foreign coaches who have complained that these qualities have been lacking in some Saudi players in the past, but there has been nothing like this – a frank press conference a day before a vital opening game in a major tournament.

Salman al-Faraj, a veteran and former captain of the team, who went off injured in the win against Argentina at the World Cup, and Sultan al-Ghannam were left out of the preliminary list. Then, at the weekend, the goalkeeper Nawaf al-Aqidi was excluded from the final squad. The latter two are Ronaldo’s teammates at Al-Nassr (Ghannam has come on leaps and bounds alongside the five-time Ballon d’Or winner) and Mancini quickly drew the ire of fans and pundits connected to the club. Aqidi is one of the few Saudi goalkeepers to get regular playing time in a league in which most clubs employ goalkeepers from overseas and he was expected to start against Oman and the remaining Group F games against Kyrgyzstan and Thailand.

It was clear that the exclusions were not down to injuries but the real reason was still a matter of much debate. On Monday Saudi Arabian journalists were desperate to ask questions to Mancini who hasn’t made himself available much to the press since arriving in August and even barred the media from attending warm-up games against Lebanon, Palestine and Hong Kong.

The former Manchester City and Internazionale manager was prepared to talk about the troublesome trio. “These players didn’t want to come to the national team, they decided, not me,” Mancini said in Doha with the striker Saleh al-Shehri sat impassively by his side. “Salman in the first [training] camp said he doesn’t want to play in the friendly game. Secondly, Sultan and Nawaf, I spoke with both before the list and I asked them if they were ready to come to the national team. Sultan told me that he was not happy: ‘Oh, I play or I don’t come.’ There is no one player who can decide if they play or not. I decide this.

“Nawaf told me: ‘OK, I will come,’ but the day after in Riyadh he said that he didn’t want to. I tried to talk to him and I put him on the list. He trained in the camp in Celine [in Doha] but three days ago he told the goalkeeper coach: ‘I don’t want to stay here if I don’t play.’

“Nobody knows the first 11 for tomorrow,” Mancini added. “But I want to pick only players who want to fight for the country, now, I don’t want to talk about Salman, Sultan or Nawaf. I understand that veteran players do this. I can understand them, but I don’t understand a young player refusing to join or come. The national team is not a club. It’s a strange situation, the first time I’ve faced this.”

The three players immediately came out to dispute Mancini’s version of events. It is a story that is going to run, especially if the tournament does not go well for the Green Falcons.

It has gone well for the other likely contenders who all recorded what were ultimately comfortable wins in the first round of games. The defending champions Qatar started with a 3-0 win against Lebanon, then Australia took advantage of a goalkeeping error to take the lead against India and won 2-0. The tournament favourites Japan had goalkeeping issues of their own and were shocked to go 2-1 down against Vietnam but ended up winning 4-2. Iranian fans gave Palestine plenty of love off the pitch before kick-off but took the lead within 70 seconds and ran out 4-1 winners.

The star of the first round of games was a South Korean. Not Son Heung-min, who was wasteful in front of goal in a 3-1 win against Bahrain and picked up a late yellow for diving, but Lee Kang-in. With the scoreline 1-1 early in the second half, the Paris Saint-Germain man curled home a beauty from outside the area and then added another well-taken goal soon after to cap off a stellar performance in which his passing had been on another level.

It was Saudi Arabia who took the headlines, however, on and off the pitch.