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Experts sound off on 2010: Sport

Saeed Humaid Al Tayer

Chairman of the Board and CEO of Meydan Racecourse
The 15th edition of the Dubai World Cup will not only be a milestone for the sport in the UAE, but also for the rest of the world, as Meydan begins to fulfil its core mission - to be the thoroughbred destination of the world. At Meydan, we have facilities that we have never had before and will be bringing racegoers as close to the action as possible. Meydan was benchmarked against the world's top racecourses to ensure the best racing experience.

Mohammad Khalfan Al Rumaithi

UAE Football Association President
I urge whichever club wins the UAE League to prepare themselves well for next year's [2010] Fifa Club World Cup, because the longer the host team stays in, the better it is for the competition. It will certainly improve attendances... We would want to see the tournament continue here. If the doors open, we will knock and open it...Next year, we will try and market the Club World Cup in a better way. We have seen the positives and negatives and we will find a solution."

Haroon Lorgat

CEO, International Cricket Council
It's important to get the volume of cricket right, and this will challenge our minds in 2010. It is always difficult because some fixtures are by the ICC, some by bilateral arrangement and then you have all the domestic fixtures. But we all need to work together to get the balance. One of our successes this year has been to bring Test cricket back into focus. It helped that India gained the No 1 ranking because that created a lot of interest and, with South Africa challenging strongly, it's very promising for Test cricket.

Richard Cregan

CEO, Abu Dhabi Motorsports Management
With outposts of the Louvre and the Guggenheim art galleries, and Ferrari and Warner Brothers theme parks, Abu Dhabi is hoping to become a real destination for the future... Yas Marina has been created as a centre of motorsporting excellence for Abu Dhabi and the whole region. There have been some great - and very successful - events here over the years, but in terms of numbers I think this will be the biggest. From that point of view, it's very significant.

Joseph Blatter

Fifa President
Football touches the world socially and culturally, and economically it has reached a dimension that means it also touches politics. But in our football society, we have all the devils of the wider world: violence, cheating, racism, doping, illegal betting, all that is in our game. That's why Fifa must not only organise competitions, we must look after the social and cultural aspects of our game.