When Canadians assemble in any numbers, these seem to be among their most important considerations: 1) organizing a Terry Fox Run, 2) displaying some maple leaf flags (so people don’t mistake them for Americans) 3) agitating for the imminent arrival of a Tim Hortons and 4) setting up a hockey league. Far as I can […]

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I don’t have a strong opinion about most Premier League coaches. Even after three years of reading about them daily. Sir Alex Ferguson? Negative connotations. A sort of bully. “Fergie time,” all that. And I don’t like calling anyone “sir”. (It’s the republican in me.) But he wins. Roberto Mancini seems a sort of fancy […]

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Of all American sports, none is so little known or understood, in this part of the world, as baseball. Basketball … they play here a little. They have heard of LeBron and Kobe. Most of the sports clubs in the country (who back the soccer teams) have basketball teams. They also have volleyball teams. And […]

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  We at The National have been writing stories about American football, here in the UAE, almost from the time the newspaper was founded, in April of 2008. Plans were laid by this or that guy who had started an academy, visions outlined, success assured … None of it ever amounted to anything. Until the […]

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The biggest sports event in a decade to be held in the UAE begins in 226 days. That would be the Fifa Under 17 World Cup, comprising teams from 24 nations playing 52 games in six cities over 23 days of competition, beginning on October 17. Some big events come through here, but the scale […]

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The world’s top-ranked golfer made news over the weekend when he walked off the course at the PGA’s Honda Classic, in Florida. Rory McIlroy was seven shots over par for the day, after eight holes, and his second shot on his ninth hole found the water … and there went Rory for the parking lot, […]

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If you think American sports franchises are quick on the trigger, when it comes to firing coaches … you have not been paying attention to sports clubs overseas. The owner of the Chelsea soccer club fires a world-famous coach about once every six months. Once you get past Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and David Moyes, […]

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It must be hard to be the brother of a star. A sports star, especially. Many of us seem to embrace the notion that if one brother is a huge talent, the other must be, too. Same parents, right? Same upbringing? Same results. Easy. Almost never works out. The “other” is generally shorter or stouter […]

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For much of the past decade, the game of tennis has seemed on a steady slog towards a joyless aerobics-driven end in which He Who Can Keep the Ball in Play Longest will win the major events, often in five hours or more. Men and women, nearly everyone stands on the baseline and slugs it […]

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If you are of a certain age, you may recall a recurring theme in the Peanuts cartoon strip. Charlie Brown would be preparing to kick a football, which his tormentor Lucy van Pelt was holding (as for a field goal) and as Charlie Brown approached she would snatch the ball away, much to CB’s frustration. […]

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