Since finishing my job in Malaysia in May it has been non-stop holiday. Soph and the grandkids came out to visit us before we left and then it was the six-week American trip. On getting back to the UK we’ve had plenty to do in trying to make the house habitable, but I’ve had no ‘proper’ work for a while.
I’d been talking to a company about joining them and when the opportunity came up for a bit of freelance work in Dubai I thought it might be a useful way of sounding them out. In truth, Dubai isn’t somewhere that has ever appealed to me. It has always struck me as a place where the expats are a bit full of themselves, but I thought that it wouldn’t do any harm to find out whether my pre-conceptions were accurate or not and anyway, it was about time that I started earning again.
Of course, one of the first things that I did was check out the football fixtures and within a couple of days of me arriving in town there was an Arabian Gulf League fixture within striking distance of where I was staying. I took a thirty minute metro ride costing five dirhams, which was about a quid, to a stop right next to Shabab Al-Ahli’s Al-Rashid stadium. It cost me another fifteen dirhams for a seat opposite the main stand. It wasn’t covered, but there’s not a lot of rain in this part of the world.
I was given a wristband to wear, which I later found out was colour-coded to signify that I was a ‘home’ supporter.
There was a call to prayer just before kick-off which was ignored by everyone in the ground. It struck me as a bit risky for fans to pass up the chance to ask for a favourable result but maybe the more pious had already put their request in.
I’d timed my visit to the UAE well, as this was the second round of league fixtures and both sides were defending one hundred per cent records courtesy of opening weekend wins. In the early exchanges Shabab looked the side more likely to preserve their record and before long they were two goals to the good.
The goals were greeted by the sound of an air raid siren. If I were a local who already had to contend with the nearby rail line and the calls to prayer I’d be hoping for solid defensive performances every week. The noise level was further increased by a bloke with a mega-phone who was marshalling the home support and a couple of drummers. I don’t know why people can’t just sit quietly really.
The dominance of the home side was temporarily halted when Fujairah pulled a goal back before the break. It took a while before everyone was sure that it would count with the officials appearing to give the video ref every opportunity to overrule it. The real ref stood for a couple of minutes with his finger in his ear before eventually letting the game resume.
At half-time I went for a wander and ended up at the opposite side of the ground. I bought a bottle of water for three dirhams but was stopped from going back into the seating area with it and had to down it there and then. After finishing my drink I was stopped a second time from getting back in as I was trying to get into the area that was designated for away fans and my armband gave me away. I’m sure the steward must have thought that this was my first ever visit to a football ground.
I admitted defeat and headed back to my own area. moving seats to the edge of the section for a slightly different view and for forty-five minutes of having my chair kicked by a bored toddler.
The second half was all Shabab, with them adding another three goals, the last of them as I was standing up to leave with a minute to go. The overall standard wasn’t too bad, although the background of the foreign players suggested that they would struggle to get a job with a Championship or even League One club. Mind you, on current form I think that both sides might well have given the Boro a decent game.
Tags: Arabian Gulf League, Dubai
Trail of the Lion King 
Leave a Reply