It was a preposterous bit of “news” in the offices of The National newspaper, based in the United Arab Emirates. Diego Maradona had signed a two-season contract to coach the Dubai club Al Wasl FC of the UAE Pro League. (Sure, and Pele was going to come with him as an assistant.) However, as that […]

[Read more →]

This is a thing, in Dubai. The police there love to add exotic and fast cars to its fleet of cruisers. The faster and more exotic, the better. The latest? Five new “patrol” cars that get from Point A to Point B in a big hurry. To wit:

[Read more →]

What were the builders thinking? Why would anyone name (what was then) the world’s tallest residential building … Torch Tower? Was “Flammable Flats” already taken? Did someone have dibs on “Incinerator Manor”? “Ashes Apartments?” Torch Tower has been a self-fulfilling appellation. It seems keen to live up to its reckless name. For the second time […]

[Read more →]

The most authentic sports experience in the United Arab Emirates is anything pertaining to the domestic soccer league — the Arabian Gulf League. It is a league overseen by Emiratis, largely staffed by Emiratis, featuring clubs overwhelmingly made up of Emirati footballers, and the whole of the league is largely watched by Emiratis, whether on […]

[Read more →]

El Jefe Loco, as I liked to call him while writing my countdown-sa2010 blog, back when Diego Maradona was coaching Argentina ahead of the 2010 World Cup, is off the unemployment rolls. He has been hired to coach a club in the UAE. The biggest and best? Al Ain or Al Ahli? Well, no. One […]

[Read more →]

If you lack context, this will seem like a bizarre story. This story in The National describes an alleged murder in Dubai that stemmed from the victim being accused of having smelly feet. The word “disproportionate” springs to mind. If smelly feet were a capital crime, most adult males would risk assassination on a regular […]

[Read more →]

His given name was Luiz Carlos Saroli, but he was known by the informal Caio Junior, going back to his playing days in Portugal and his native Brazil. And that is how we referred to him in the pages of The National while he coached in the UAE. He died in a plane crash tonight, […]

[Read more →]

Going back to the Abu Dhabi days here. In the UAE, daily English-language journalism is, 95 percent of the time, not dissimilar from English-language journalism in the U.S. or Britain. Timely, fact-based, well-sourced. But then there is that 5 percent when things get a bit squirrely, and you didn’t really see what you saw — […]

[Read more →]

I love this story. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, the ruler of Dubai and the UAE’s vice president, made some surprise visits to the city-state’s governmental agencies yesterday. At one municipality office, identified by The National as the Department of Economic Development, not a soul was to be found. During working hours. An embedded video went […]

[Read more →]

It was three years ago that I saw Ricardo Quaresma at what must have been his low ebb. This would have been in Abu Dhabi, in the stands at Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium, where I watching the final of the President’s Cup — which pitted Al Ahli and Al Shabab on a stultifying May evening. […]

[Read more →]