I've got a friend who plays on the Quatari national team. His name is Vince and he's in his 50s, so you can figure out for yourself what his story is.
I imagine the UAE has some similar players, and they're as likely as anyone else to draw the hard checking assignments.
Are you certain he plays on the national team? Or is he playing the "national league" which is really beer league.
Looking at the most recent IIHF rankings, the United Arab Emirates is WAY WAY WAY down the list.
If UAE brought their national team to the Olympics and played against Team Canada, what would the score be?
And what would the shot differential between UAE and Team Canada be?
What would Coach Mike Babcock's gameplan be? And who on United Arab Emirates would match-up against Sidney Crosby?
The UAE team would get smoked. Ive played in a tournament against some of the Emiratis on the team. They are athletic, good skaters and in good shape but have zero hockey sense.
This is something people dont really understand or pay much attention to but take your average Canadian. Chances are they grew up watching hockey from a young age. That gets imprinted on the brain.
That should be the next outdoor game, in Dubai. UAE will just buy their team.
They had planned to build a bubble in the desert that would contain a alpine resort town with an outdoor rink. But then the downturn happened.
They do have an olympic rink and quite a decent one in the Dubai mall.
Al Nasr Leisureland which was their first rink in Dubai looks like something you saw 30 years ago in a remote town in Canada.
Abu Dhabi has a nice rink a Zayed Sports City.
UAE beat Bahrain (similar or better level than Qatar) 25-0 in 2011.
UAE is streets ahead of the others. UAE has had very good exposure to high level hockey due to the expat leagues.
There is a league in Abu Dhabi which I am not sure of the level but the league in Dubai is pretty good. I'm not sure what level would be comparable in Canada (A,B,C,D) but to put it in perspective, off the top of my head there are players in Dubai who played:
- College/Uni in the states
- junior in Canada though not sure if any have played CHL
- Russian MHL (junior)
- ECHL
- English premier league
- Slovak Junior and Extra liga
- Finnish 1 divisioona
Thought there are also guys who have just started playing so its mixed but over all its very good hockey.
The top league is the Emirates Hockey League which contains the best players from these leagues and a few other places. The EHL i believe was started to comply with IIHF requirements or something like that.