The World Sports Summit came to a suitably extravagant conclusion in Dubai on Tuesday with no fewer than seven Fifa World Cup winners appearing on stage together.
The group – Italy's Alessandro Del Piero and Fabio Cannavaro, Brazilian greats Ronaldo and Cafu, former France captain Didier Deschamps, and Spain legends Carles Puyol and Andres Iniesta – boasted 801 international caps, 10 World Cups, 10 Uefa Champions League triumphs and 35 domestic league titles between them.
Other numbers were likely being crunched at the Dubai Sports Council on Wednesday, such as the event’s colossal social media reach, or the dollar value of deals struck at Madinat Jumeirah as decision-makers, agents and managers mingled among the athletes.
Something that is hard to quantify, though, is the profound impact sport has had, and continues to have, on life in Dubai and the UAE as a whole – from neighbourhood yoga studios to major international competitions. Sport is intrinsic here.
A few months ago, the council quietly released its plan to double the number of sporting events it hosts by 2033 and transform Dubai into “the world’s best sporting city”. The summit was some way to start.
If diversity, multiculturalism and the sharing of values and ideas is the UAE’s strength, then this was its sporting manifestation, a cross-pollination of athletes, codes and the industries that support them.
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