Dubai is officially opening its doors to any and all International football stars, teams and sports clubs after its Crown Prince and Chairman of the Executive Council of Dubai Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum posted a special tweet just two days ago:
In the tweet, the Crown prince made reference to an article written by US sports magazine ‘The Athletic’ shining a spotlight on Dubai becoming a hub for International clubs and football players to come, relax and train. For a while now, some of the biggest names in football including Mohammed Salah and Christiano Ronaldo have dropped the Emirate a visit and trained at one of its best facilities, the Nad Al Sheba (NAS) Sports Complex.
Sheikh Hamdan’s big announcement supports and celebrates Dubai’s latest status as a sports hub as he agrees that there is no place like Dubai when it comes to hosting International football stars and clubs. This comes days before the Emirate made history by becoming the host of the first edition of the Dubai Sports Cup, a four team tournament between Arsenal, Liverpool, AC Milan and Lyon. Set to take place from Dec. 8 until the 18 at the Al Maktoum Stadium, each team will get to play two games each while the two Premier league clubs will not go head to head during the tournament.
Several squad members from Liverpool and Arsenal have already arrived to Dubai to set up and prepare for the matches. Receiving a warm welcome, Arsenal arrived to find a large wall projection with the words ‘Welcome Arsenal FC’ that featured their logo and the Burj Khalifa set in a red background. In anticipation of the big sporting events, the players have hit the football pitch to train.
The Upcoming Matches
The Cup will kick off with Arsenal who will play against Lyon on December 8th which will be followed by Liverpool and Lyon battling it out on the field on December 11th. AC Milan will go head to head with Arsenal on December 13 while Liverpool and AC Milan will face off on December 16, bringing the games to a pinnacle close.
Worldwide fans can attend the anticipated tournament by buying tickets from the official Platinumlist website. So far, the Cup has been generating quite the buzz on social media and according to Khaleej Times, its the kind of event that will enhance the UAE’s sports tourism sector, helping to pave the way to it becoming a hub for more International sporting events.