Sport | Football
Fans go wild celebrating Gulf Cup
All traffic rules were broken on Shaikh Zayed Road as football fans went wild celebrating the Gulf Cup win with their home team. A caravan of cars kick-started a huge rally.
- By Mariam Al Serkal, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:36 May 3, 2009
- A huge caravan makes its way along Shaikh Zayed Road as part of the victory parade.
- Image Credit: Vazhisojan/Gulf News
Dubai: All traffic rules were broken yesterday on Shaikh Zayed Road as football fans went wild celebrating the Gulf Cup win with their home team.
A huge rally started near the World Trade Centre at around 4pm with the players in a bus and immediately fans cheered and stopped the caravan of cars and started spray-foaming cars nearby.
Police sirens went off and policemen were seen honking vainly trying to get the fans to move on, but without success.
Many fans were seen on the tops of the cars dancing jubilantly.
After awhile, the rally turned into two caravans, one taking the victory parade route, starting from Zabeel, through Shaikh Zayed Road, Jumeirah Road and onwards, while another headed straight for the Global Village where the final celebrations started at 7pm.
Incredible noise
"The noise was incredible with police sirens, cars honking and girls screaming," said one resident, who said he was happy to share in the joy.
At the Global Village the gate No 1 was kept open exclusively for the players in the bus and the cars which had been decorated specially for the occasion.
All others were allowed only through one other gate, leading to a huge jam. The players were received by officials of the Dubai Shopping Festival.
Many four-wheelers were decorated with graffiti and sprayed with the words, "I love you Whites," in Arabic.
The celebrations went on till 1am. Some of the top names in the Arab pop scene as Ahlam, Abdullah Bin Khair, Fayez Saeed, Hamad Al Ameri, Arayam and Samr sang and danced through the night with the joyous crowd.
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