BRIAN HALFORD discovers a small corner of the Middle Eastern desert which, despite the obvious weather differences, becomes more like a Small Heath pub for a couple of hours every Saturday afternoon.
PICTURE the scene. The Byblos Hotel in the upmarket Barsha area of Dubai. Five stars.
Twelve storeys stretch up into a cloudless blue sky. Rows of palm trees head off towards the beach, ten minutes away.
Inside, 152 bedrooms, each with its own unique paintings, electronic ‘do not disturb’ sign and Phoenician alphabet-pattern carpet. Pretty swanky.
In the hotel’s six bars and restaurants, businessmen meet. Clients are entertained and deals done amid the gentle hubbub of entrepreneurs and well-heeled holiday-makers.
But what’s that noise emanating from one of those bars, the Crown and Lion?
Could it be..?
Yes it is...
“Keep-right-on-to-the-end-of-the-road...”
There, among the gleaming furniture, the immaculate waiters and all the air-conditioned opulence... Blues shirts abound. Welcome to the Middle East branch of Birmingham City Supporters Club.
When Blues face Southampton on Saturday, the regulars at St Andrew’s will wrap up well and, perhaps, to help the heating process, treat themselves to a balti pie and a Bovril.
Three-and-a-half thousand miles away, meanwhile, between 20 and 50 Blues fans will gather for brunch, find a comfortably shady spot in the Crown and Lion and watch the match with every bit as much passion, perhaps even more as they can’t actually be there to cheer on their beloved team.
It’s not the same as being at St Andrew’s, of course. But as co-founder of the Middle East Blues, Dan Perry explains, for Blues fans working out east, it’s the next best thing.
“It’s just great to get together with people who know where you are coming from and understand your sense of humour,” he said.
“We get together and let out a few choruses of ‘Keep Right On’ and it’s very enjoyable, though, of course, nothing can replace being there.
“On the day we were relegated last season we saw on the box the passion of the fans and players when Craig Gardner scored and then the heartbreak on the faces when we went down. You just want to be there. But this way we can at least be part of it in a small way.”
The Middle East Blues were launched in 2007 when Dan and fellow Bluenose Terry Woodley decided to try to bring together the supporters they kept seeing around Dubai and the other United Arab Emirates.
An e-mail to the local paper ‘7days’ did the trick and soon the Blues fraternity out east was up and running as a group.
“We used to see people around the hotels or on the beach so thought ‘let’s try and get them together’,” said Dan.
“There are so many cultures out here that it is just great to get together with other Brits and, best of all, other Brummies. You get sick of all the Manchester United and Chelsea and latterly Manchester City fans around.
