Dubai: The presence of Real Madrid stars Cristiano Ronaldo and James Rodriguez along with the Fifa World Cup trophy will be among the highlights at this year’s Dubai International Sports Conference to be held at Atlantis The Palm on December 28-29.
Organised under the patronage of Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman, DSC, details of this year’s conference held under the slogan “Towards Smart Football” were disclosed by Saeed Hareb, General Secretary, DSC, on Thursday.
The German Football Association (DfB) has agreed to put the Fifa World Cup trophy on display at Atlantis, The Palm on both days of the conference, while Ronaldo and Rodriguez will be among the high-profile guests at the annual ‘Dubai Football Gala Globe Soccer Awards’.
Other top-notch footballers who have confirmed their attendance are players from Real Madrid and AC Milan including Fernando Torres, Tony Kroos and Gareth Bale as they prepare for their exhibition match at The Sevens ground on December 30.
Organized in association with Globe Soccer, prominent among the speakers will be some of the biggest and best football entities including Italian giants AC Milan, who will have a special session delving on the success of the club that has so far won an amazing 41 international trophies so far.
Some of the stand-out speakers who will be involved with the two-day conference are Arjen Robben, Mario Goetze, Fabio Capello, Michel Platini, Filippo Inzaghi, Fiorentino Perez, former star Patrick Kluivert and Stephan Al Shaarawy.
“We are not bringing in anything new here, but just continuing our long-term plan to achieve our targets and the targets set by our leaders. Only yesterday we had a message from His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai with his ‘Vision 2021’. It is now time for us to make a start and put things together to raise the level of football in the UAE and the region at large,” Hareb said.
Hareb was pleased to welcome the stars to Dubai simply because of the value the event and the individuals bring to the city. “Ronaldo has 130 million followers on Facebook, another 9 million on Instagram and a further 30 million on Chinese social site Weibo. This is an amazing advertisement for Dubai and the work that is being done by the Dubai Sports Council,” Hareb added.
Once again the Rashid Paediatric Centre, Dubai will be the charity partner of the event. With schools shut for the festive break, at least 50 children will be present at the gala night where they will perform before the celebrities.
Hareb was pleased with the manner in which the football fraternity has responded to the annual conference. “We have ensured to stick to our policy of bringing in only the best in the business. Being a keen sportsman, Shaikh Hamdan has been hands-on with the preparations for this conference. The end goal is to ensure Dubai benefits from having the cream of football right here and we are pleased with the way the players and clubs have responded,” he said.
