Time for a list. Haven’t done many of late. And this is one of those days when little revelations seem to pop into my head. Not enough for a whole blog item on each of them … well, maybe … but enough for a list. I hope I’m not repeating too many of these. I’m […]

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I have been deeply involved in our coverage of the country’s professional soccer league here, known as (of course) the Pro League. It is fairly remarkable that such a small country has 12 “first division” teams and another 16 in the second division. But there you are. Emiratis in particular love the game (the Indians […]

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Historically,  the Sunday paper is the big one. In the Western world, anyway. Here in the UAE, Sunday actually is Monday. The first day of the work week. But let’s make believe it’s our biggest and best section of the week. What are our top 10 stories in the paper tomorrow? Let’s count them down.

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To celebrate Eid Eve, the Day after Labor Day and the Jewish New Year — and I venture to say no other group of people on the planet had that combination of events in mind at the same event — we invited over five people for … Mexican food! They hardly do Mexican in the […]

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Almost every sports fan in the world is interested in his or her national soccer team. Certainly applies in the UAE, where the most casual of supporters can tell you where and when the UAE appeared in its first (and still only) World Cup. That would be Italy, 1990. The UAE went out in three […]

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Wow. That looked miserable. Actually, it looked scary. Professional soccer,  and all that running and sprinting and just maximum exertion … in temperatures described by weather.com as “93, feels like 113.” That was what we had going on here in Abu Dhabi tonight when Al Jazira played Al Nasr on Day 2 of the local […]

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While researching the concept of “great sports venues” in Asia, it was deeply impressed upon me how enormous was the scope of the topic. Daunting, even. How to know about that grand old place in what is now Kazakhstan? Or the charming race track in Mongolia? Or whatever it is that Nepal, Uzbekistan, Georgia or […]

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This is pretty good stuff, if I say so myself. However, I didn’t link to the Europe part of this, a couple of days ago, and South America is coming up for Tuesday morning. So let’s catch up with that. Got any guesses at our top three venues for Europe and South America? Let’s link […]

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Part 3 of the series in The National about the best sports venues in the world. Broken out by continent. In Monday’s editions: North America! Interesting, how the voting went. I will tell you who won: Augusta National. Even the Brits in the room know about “the course like no other” or whatever it is […]

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We at The National are selecting — and writing about — the planet’s best places to see a sports event. Stadiums, arenas, race tracks (horse and motors), even a “Gulf.” This was the idea of Robert Mashburn, the sports editor here, who had a brainstorm a few months back to rank the top 10 venues […]

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