TURNING a polo field in the United Arab Emirates into an AFL venue has been no easy task, but the league is confident Saturday's NAB Cup opener between Collingwood and Adelaide will go off smoothly.

AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson said league staff had faced a big job overseeing the transition of the Ghantoot Polo Grounds in UAE capital Abu Dhabi into an approximation of a traditional AFL venue.

"It's been a real challenge for our football operations department ... it's a polo field, so there was no infrastructure whatsoever in place," Anderson said.

"So it's been a massive project to get this ground, as our first priority, to get the turf up to scratch.

"That looks great, I've seen the latest photos ... then all the stands, the dressing rooms, all the infrastructure that goes with hosting a NAB Cup match has been a big logistical challenge.

"But it's exciting for us to be playing the first game of the 2008 NAB Cup in Abu Dhabi."

While Anderson said the area had been hit by an unusual amount of rain in the lead-up, he said that had not been a problem in preparing the ground.

Fine weather and 22 degrees has been forecast for Saturday and Anderson tipped a crowd of between 5,000-10,000, with many of them expected to be expat Australians.

Anderson said the AFL chose to stage the match in the UAE largely because of the connection between the country and sponsors of the Crows and Magpies.

Collingwood have Emirates Airlines as one of their major sponsors, while Adelaide's major sponsor Toyota has a significant market share in the emirates.

"It's a growing area for trade and business for Australia," Anderson said.

He said the UAE match was currently intended as a one-off, but the AFL planned to play more pre-season matches overseas in future years and an overseas game for premiership points was a possibility.

"There's no immediate thought to do so, but it's certainly not something that you'd rule out in the longer term," he said.

"Recovery (from a long flight) is obviously an issue."