 At the last minute, with an evening off, I decided to don my Bahrain football shirt and go down to the National Stadium for the Opening Ceremony of the Gulf Cup on Saturday 6th January and the first match of the tournament: Bahrain against Oman. The football was a little disappointing- a goalless draw- but the Opening Ceremony was fun. There were several huge “table tennis balls” onto which were projected a variety of images: both people past and present but also many other designs.  Large flags were paraded and there was a spectacular firework display to conclude the ceremony. I gathered afterwards that there were some other than Gulf Nationals present – there was a very vocal Omani group in a different section of the stadium – but in the section I was in it was very much the local community, but they seemed very happy for me to be there. |
At the last minute, with an evening off, I decided to don my Bahrain football shirt and go down to the National Stadium for the Opening Ceremony of the Gulf Cup on Saturday 6th January and the first match of the tournament: Bahrain against Oman. The football was a little disappointing- a goalless draw- but the Opening Ceremony was fun. There were several huge “table tennis balls” onto which were projected a variety of images: both people past and present but also many other designs. 
Large flags were paraded and there was a spectacular firework display to conclude the ceremony. I gathered afterwards that there were some other than Gulf Nationals present – there was a very vocal Omani group in a different section of the stadium – but in the section I was in it was very much the local community, but they seemed very happy for me to be there.