A Diego Maradona training session would have drawn a few more people to the stands, but the Argentine legend's home ground wore a desolate look last night despite being the venue of a President's Cup match.
Not more than a few dozen people watched as Kalba and Al Dhafra, two Pro League teams of the last season, met in the opening round of the second-most important competition in UAE football.
Maradona himself made a brief appearance in the VIP box but left long before Kalba overturned a two-goal deficit to win 3-2 and book their spot in the quarter-finals.
Dhafra played the final 18 minutes with 10 men after Ahmed Abdullah Nasir picked up his second booking of the night.
The two teams, one with a base in the Western Region and the other from a Sharjah enclave to the south of Fujairah, are certainly not a headline act in UAE football, but the lack of attendance was still a sore.
Distance surely was the biggest reason for those deserted stands.
Fans from Kalba or Madinat Zayed would have to drive a couple of hours to reach the venue and then drive back in the night.
Watching the live telecast at home or at a cafe would seem like the more practical option.
Given the reluctance of fans to travel for even the Pro League games, why were two teams from such distant regions playing in Dubai?
With the knockout format of the tournament, the decision to play at neutral venues is understandable.
But playing in front of empty stands sullies the image of a prestigious tournament.
Following the format of England's FA Cup could be a better option. Let the luck of the draw decide the home team.
Hopefully, there would be a few more fans cheering on their players then.
The lack of support, however, did not seem to affect the players much.
The President's Cup affords them a chance to shed the anonymity of Division One and get some TV time. That must have been their incentive last night an the two teams brought their best game to the park.
Kalba, with the former French Under-19 Gregory Dufrennes leading their attack, must have fancied their chances of going through from the game to the last eight. Earlier this month they drubbed Dhafra 7-1 in a Division One match; they had won their last Pro League duel as well.
The Abu Dhabi team, however, seemed a different side. They had come to Dubai with a point to prove and did just that. By the 16th minute, Dhafra had taken the lead through Oumar Kalabane; the Guinean rose over the Kalba defence to head home.
In the 36th minute, Abdullah Abdul Hadi made it 2-0, flicking the ball past a sliding Kalba goalkeeper Mohammed Othman after being set up by a defence-splitting pass from Kalabane.
Subdued going into the break, Kalba came out forcefully in the second session and their relentless pressure paid off in the 62nd minute when Abdulmalik Miqdad nodded in a Dufrennes free kick.
With only a minute left on the clock, Khalid Ali Khamis booted in the equaliser and the Brazilian Elias de Oliveira struck the winner for Kalba in added time.
arizvi@thenational.ae
ORDER OF PLAY ON SHOW COURTS
Centre Court - 4pm (UAE)
Gael Monfils (15) v Kyle Edmund
Karolina Pliskova (3) v Magdalena Rybarikova
Dusan Lajovic v Roger Federer (3)
Court 1 - 4pm
Adam Pavlasek v Novak Djokovic (2)
Dominic Thiem (8) v Gilles Simon
Angelique Kerber (1) v Kirsten Flipkens
Court 2 - 2.30pm
Grigor Dimitrov (13) v Marcos Baghdatis
Agnieszka Radwanska (9) v Christina McHale
Milos Raonic (6) v Mikhail Youzhny
Tsvetana Pironkova v Caroline Wozniacki (5)
Dhadak
Director: Shashank Khaitan
Starring: Janhvi Kapoor, Ishaan Khattar, Ashutosh Rana
Stars: 3
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Recipe: Spirulina Coconut Brothie
Ingredients
1 tbsp Spirulina powder
1 banana
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk (full fat preferable)
1 tbsp fresh turmeric or turmeric powder
½ cup fresh spinach leaves
½ cup vegan broth
2 crushed ice cubes (optional)
Method
Blend all the ingredients together on high in a high-speed blender until smooth and creamy.
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The view from The National
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
The specs
Engine: 3-litre twin-turbo V6
Power: 400hp
Torque: 475Nm
Transmission: 9-speed automatic
Price: From Dh215,900
On sale: Now
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Mountain%20Boy
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Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The Africa Institute 101
Housed on the same site as the original Africa Hall, which first hosted an Arab-African Symposium in 1976, the newly renovated building will be home to a think tank and postgraduate studies hub (it will offer master’s and PhD programmes). The centre will focus on both the historical and contemporary links between Africa and the Gulf, and will serve as a meeting place for conferences, symposia, lectures, film screenings, plays, musical performances and more. In fact, today it is hosting a symposium – 5-plus-1: Rethinking Abstraction that will look at the six decades of Frank Bowling’s career, as well as those of his contemporaries that invested social, cultural and personal meaning into abstraction.
