From his smartphone, Hussein Hammoud played a video showing a stadium full of hundreds of enthusiastic football supporters wearing the maroon Qatar jersey, jumping up and down while chanting in unison.
The supporters are rigorously following the instructions of their coach, who is energetically waving his arms to channel the crowd's excitement, like a conductor would lead an orchestra.
The scene, which took place in the host country a couple of weeks before the World Cup, was one of the many rehearsals of the Qatari national team's Arab Fans' League.
Qatar's initiative aimed to gather and train football fans from around the Middle East and North Africa to support their national team.
Mr Hammoud, 29, a Lebanese football supporter, was proud to be one of the Arab Fans' League’s coaches.
“The Fans' League was a very bonding experience between Arabs and I was really proud to be part of it. It was all the more meaningful because it is the first World cup taking place in an Arab country”, he said, sat in a cafe in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, where he returned to a couple of days ago.
He said the league gathered Arabs from Qatar, Lebanon, Algeria, Syria, Egypt, Palestine, Jordan and Syria.
“I had never met so many people from so many different Arab countries,” he said. “We could not even understand each other at the beginning because our dialects are different. But these weeks of training created a sentiment of unity."
This was far from being his first time leading a crowd of football supporters.
Mr Hammoud is a well-known figure on the Lebanese football scene. He is a fan leader for Lebanon’s national football team and for the Nejmeh Sporting Club, whose crest he has tattooed on his chest.
Also a Brazil supporter, like many Lebanese, Mr Hammoud does not normally follow the Qatar team, who have never qualified for the competition before hosting. But this World Cup, marked by Morocco's historic performance, has ignited pan-Arab unity.
“It was natural for me to cheer for Qatar, the same way I cheered for Morocco. As an Arab, I support Arab teams over any other," he said.
Casting and training football fans
A couple of months before the competition, Qatar organised castings across the region to choose the best football fans. “After the casting in Beirut, they selected around 150 Lebanese from all ages and sects”, out of a total of approximately 2,000 Arab fans in the league, he said.
Mr Hammoud landed in Qatar a couple of months before the World Cup, while other Lebanese fans came in the following weeks, but “most of the foreigners were Arab expats already living in Qatar, so they were already on-site”, he said.
The league rehearsed once or twice a week in different stadiums across the country. The most experienced were appointed as coaches to conduct the crowd and put on the best performance for the Qatari team.
The Arab world has a culture of passionate football fans, with countries such as Egypt being well known for their extreme supporters — the ultras — who have assumed important political roles in the country.
“It was a co-operation from all Arab countries to exchange our respective football experiences,” Mr Hammoud said.
The fans used chants specially created for the World Cup. “Some were inspired by traditional Qatari songs. We also had songs based on generic football tunes tailored to the Qatari accent — which I ended up speaking perfectly,” he said.
Some media reported that the recruited fans were offered a full package including tickets and hotels in exchange for their support.
For Mr Hammoud, it was first and foremost a chance given to Arabs to attend a historic event, he said.
The Arab Fans’ League performed their carefully choreographed support for only three matches as Qatar were quickly knocked out of the competition, losing to Ecuador, Senegal and the Netherlands and becoming the first host nation to lose all its group stage matches.
“It does not matter that we lost, the ambience was incredible, I am really proud of what we achieved, and I would do it all over again," Mr Hammoud said.
THE SPECS
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Power: 275hp at 6,600rpm
Torque: 353Nm from 1,450-4,700rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto
Top speed: 250kph
Fuel consumption: 6.8L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: Dh146,999
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal / Ubisoft Toronto
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platforms: Playstation 4, Xbox One, Windows
Release Date: April 10
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Profile
Company: Justmop.com
Date started: December 2015
Founders: Kerem Kuyucu and Cagatay Ozcan
Sector: Technology and home services
Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai
Size: 55 employees and 100,000 cleaning requests a month
Funding: The company’s investors include Collective Spark, Faith Capital Holding, Oak Capital, VentureFriends, and 500 Startups.
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup - Sept 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
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Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Other acts on the Jazz Garden bill
Sharrie Williams
The American singer is hugely respected in blues circles due to her passionate vocals and songwriting. Born and raised in Michigan, Williams began recording and touring as a teenage gospel singer. Her career took off with the blues band The Wiseguys. Such was the acclaim of their live shows that they toured throughout Europe and in Africa. As a solo artist, Williams has also collaborated with the likes of the late Dizzy Gillespie, Van Morrison and Mavis Staples.
Lin Rountree
An accomplished smooth jazz artist who blends his chilled approach with R‘n’B. Trained at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC, Rountree formed his own band in 2004. He has also recorded with the likes of Kem, Dwele and Conya Doss. He comes to Dubai on the back of his new single Pass The Groove, from his forthcoming 2018 album Stronger Still, which may follow his five previous solo albums in cracking the top 10 of the US jazz charts.
Anita Williams
Dubai-based singer Anita Williams will open the night with a set of covers and swing, jazz and blues standards that made her an in-demand singer across the emirate. The Irish singer has been performing in Dubai since 2008 at venues such as MusicHall and Voda Bar. Her Jazz Garden appearance is career highlight as she will use the event to perform the original song Big Blue Eyes, the single from her debut solo album, due for release soon.
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Company%20profile
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Company%20profile
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The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
The British in India: Three Centuries of Ambition and Experience
by David Gilmour
Allen Lane
'Joker'
Directed by: Todd Phillips
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix
Rating: Five out of five stars
Leaderboard
63 - Mike Lorenzo-Vera (FRA)
64 - Rory McIlroy (NIR)
66 - Jon Rahm (ESP)
67 - Tom Lewis (ENG), Tommy Fleetwood (ENG)
68 - Rafael Cabrera-Bello (ESP), Marcus Kinhult (SWE)
69 - Justin Rose (ENG), Thomas Detry (BEL), Francesco Molinari (ITA), Danny Willett (ENG), Li Haotong (CHN), Matthias Schwab (AUT)
How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
- Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
- Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
- Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
- Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
- Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
- The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
- Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
