Blue Cat

just been on facebook and there is a save Dubai Country Club group! sign up everyone!

TA5

Are you seriously going to argue this issue further. Its over, done. It was over the second that the owners of everything in dubai (ruling family) decided it was over.

Blue Cat

yes I am going to argue it, yes we will probably lose the current club but we were offered compensation which has been declined now.

IndieG

Precisely! I'm sure most labourers would happily return to India once they've worked in the UAE for a month or two, if their passports were not held back.


Recent article in the Gulf News:

Indian amnesty seekers gave a lukewarm response to job offers with only about 60 ready to work here out of the 3,000 applicants waiting to go home, said embassy officials.

"One single company alone was offering 685 jobs," one official said. "Several employers had approached the Indian Embassy asking for skilled workers such as electricians, plumbers, welders, carpenters and masons," he said.

The lack of interest in working here is because of the severe hardships the illegal workers had undergone.

"Most of them do not want to come back", said a senior official at the embassy. "They say they will earn only about Rupees 4,000 to 5,000 (between Dh 365 to Dh 460 per month) at any job here, which they can easily earn back home."


More here...
http://www.gulf-news.com/nation/Empl.../10142318.html

arbroath_abroad

HERE HERE FRICKING HERE

people who have been here for years fall into this trap. This is not your home country, given half a chance the locals would have you out of here in a flash

remember that!!

IndieG

12 years and have never ever been under this illusion......

arbroath_abroad

Your obviously in touch with reality then

The Dean

OK OK calm down calm down.......... I predict the MINIMUM that will happen will be:

Emirates will be granted a parcel of land which they will, in effect, "own". On it they will build a PERMANENT home for the Exiles - this will not simply be like a municipal council football pitch back home ("If you've finished your match, get lost - there's another game on in a minute."), but a PROPER CLUB, with clubhouse, facilities, etc, with an Exiles 'identity'.

The Emirates link with sport is now so inextricable that they won't do anything that could be seen as restrictive or backward for sport in their own neck of the woods.

They (Emirates) had to agree to this - and did so, in writing - as part of the submission by the AGRFU to host the World Sevens in 2009. This land will never be "owned" by the Exiles, but will be as good as theirs.

That's the minimum.............. but I know there are high level moves afoot that may yet result in something the Exiles can genuinely call their own......

The Country Club is another matter altogether. Emirates won't feel any loyalty to them like they do to rugby and all that goes with it. Not optimistic but I'll join your fight in any way I can....... good luck.

shakh your bootie

Does the country club currently turn a profit? Does it have any capital? I would have thought that if a case can be made for it to run as a successful, self funded enterprise then there is no reason why it should not compete with the other clubs etc that exist in the UAE. I'm sure that when it was originally set up, it was in the government's interest to set up and subsidize a special social club for expat workers to make life more palletable for the people they were trying to attract, but now times have changed. If the Country Club has unique selling points that mean that people would preferentially join it to other clubs, then why not raise finance to build a new club whilst maintaining the "branding" of the old club?

Madam Medusa

well it does do fabulous bacon butties...

oh yeah, and it's waaaay cheaper than anywhere else...

MM, xx

W10

This has already happened. Emirates has been given the land earmarked for the DCC and Exiles and Darjeeling Cricket Club and is going to run a club for its employees with access granted to the existing clubs.

You think the UAE cares about grass roots sport? No, it cares about big time sponsorship...grass roots sport is dying here and has been killed off for the past 18 months. They didn't even want to fund Asian Games squads unless they had a chance of success. As it turns out, the guy who won their only gold was the guy who'd been treated like crap by his employer and got no sponsorship...go and ask the only Olympic gold medal winner in UAE history how much funding his sport is getting...or the UAE cricket team and leagues.

If its high profile and making headlines, Emirates will be in there...

Blue Cat

I can see where your coming from but why should we have to raise finance to buy land and build another club when we have a perfectly good one now!! the land was gifted to us from Sheik Rashid, now they want it back. We are entitled to compensation.

The only reason that Emirates are being nice to the Rugby club and use the term nice very loosely is that they want the Rugby 7's and the sponsorship deals that are attached with it. The Rugby 7's if I remember rightly is no longer organised by the Exiles, merely held there. Promoseven are the organisers, maybe the Dean will know more and he seems to know more about rugby matters than I do.

Blue Cat

They have had to pay for the land, it hasn't been granted.

shakh your bootie

Have you had a lawyer look at this? What is the status of the country club - is it a registered company in the UAE, or in some other sense a recognised legal entity? You may be able to construct a legal argument based upon the civil code - even with an arguable case the hassle & bad press of a legal battle could strengthen your negotiating position.

Blue Cat

I am pretty sure that our lawyer will have looked into these options, but at the end of the day we are fighting a pretty big cheese! I will look into this though, it would be costly though and with no guarantees. As we are now if we do close by the end of the year we can clear our debts, all gratuities and walk away scot free. But without our club!