Dubai: Former Argentinian football legend Diego Maradona was the star attraction at the Dubai Sports Council’s (DSC) 36-hour ‘Spirit of the Union’ football match that produced a record 352 goals at the Dubai Police Officers Club ground earlier this week.
Held to coincide with the 43rd UAE National Day celebrations Maradona was at his very best entertaining the holiday crowd with his skills.
As the sports ambassador of DSC, Maradona was joined by some of the UAE stars from the 1990 Fifa World Cup squad for an hour from 7 to 8 pm on the opening day. Several professional clubs from the UAE also participated with their teams in the exhibition match.
“What was important for us was to get the entire community together to mark the National Day celebrations. We managed to bring together nearly 200 nationalities and this means a huge success for this event,” Gazi Al Madani, Manager, Sports Tourism Sector, DSC, told Gulf News.
“We feel encouraged by the response we’ve got and we will definitely try to have this initiative bigger and better next year,” he promised.
The match kicked off at 9 am on Friday in the presence of representatives from the DSC and Mondial, and concluded the following day at 9 pm. The match lasted for a total duration of 2,160 minutes that is equivalent to 24 regular football matches, and witnessed participation from more than 1,600 players. At the end of 36 hours, the White team won against the Red team 197-155.
Organised by the DSC in coordination with Mondial, the ‘Spirit of Union’ match had several government and non-government entities associated with it. “Now that this match is over, we will start planning for a bigger one next year,” promised Ganem Bin Lahej of Mondial.
