UAE | General

Communities came together to watch teams battle it out

With the FIFA World Cup 2006 coming to an end, Dubai residents are returning to their daily routines no longer punctuated by daily catch-ups near the office coffee machines with colleagues or replaying that winning goal to enthused family members.

  • By Emmauelle Landais, Staff Reporter
  • Published: 00:00 July 10, 2006
  • Gulf News

Dubai: With the FIFA World Cup 2006 coming to an end, Dubai residents are returning to their daily routines no longer punctuated by daily catch-ups near the office coffee machines with colleagues or replaying that winning goal to enthused family members.

Football fans said they had fun for a month watching different countries battle it out in Germany?s football stadiums.

Groups formed and friends were made at venues broadcasting the World Cup. At the Iranian Club Dubai, Alash Yadhin was ready for the matches to be shown.

"I watched all the Iranian matches of course and I tried to watch all the other matches when I could. It is such a big event," said Yadhin.

"We had between 400 and 500 people for every match at the club. I don?t think France or Italy deserved to get to the final, but Italy won and I think they deserved that," he said, adding that he is already looking forward to the next World Cup.

German national Florian Eck, 31, a media sales manager from Munich, said it was amazing to see the German team performing so well.

"I would have loved to watch it in Germany, I had a ticket but gave it to a friend because I was moving to Dubai. He told me it was an amazing feeling in the city when Germany played," said Eck.

He added that being new to the city he did not feel that there was feeling of segregation between communities and often ended up sitting in cosmopolitan groups cheering on his team.

"It was strange not to be in the country when your team is playing but it is generally a TV occasion. With football, I didn?t feel that communities were separated. We all watched together," he said.

Prashand Menon, 31, from India who works in Media City, said the World Cup offered a welcome break from the daily grind.

"I followed to a large extent and I supported teams like Argentina and Brazil. It was exciting to watch and it was definitely nice to have something to do over the summer," said Menon who might consider going to South Africa for the World Cup 2010.

And whilst the population of Dubai was football obsessed, the streets were quiet and traffic was fluid. Taxi driver Alam Nazin, 38, said Dubai roads were quiet throughout the football frenzy that enveloped the city.

"I had to work but I went home for one hour to watch the Italy-France match! It was very easy driving around because of the football," said Nazin.

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