From making German-language videos about Dubai, to entertaining Diego Maradona, Michelle Rodriguez and Lionel Richie in the shadow of its most famous landmarks, Sam Katiela has become a fixture on the UAE business scene since moving to the emirate 14 years ago.
But it is his involvement in polo, the “sport of kings”, for which he is best known.
“In 2004 we were sitting in a friend’s majlis and we thought we need to do something fun, something different,” said Katiela, who is originally from Palestine but was raised in Germany. “My wife is Swiss and they play polo on snow in St Moritz, so we came up with an idea: ‘Why don’t we play polo on the beach’?”
He could not have foreseen just how quickly beach polo would spread.
“A new sport was born here in the UAE, which was exported in 2004 to the rest of the world,” he said. “We started in 2004, in 2005 Miami followed and now over 33 cities take part.”
The start of the two-day 2015 Beach Polo Cup Dubai, now in its sixth year, kicks off on Friday with four teams taking part. Katiela, 43, has witnessed his idea grow over the past decade and says it can open doors as well as entertain, and is a natural fit in the country.
“The UAE is known for horses: endurance racing, Dubai World Cup, showjumping in Abu Dhabi, horse beauty competition in Ajman. This country is fanatical about horses, which is beautiful, it reflects the culture,” he said.
“Polo gives you access to the world. Polo gives you a door to people you can rarely access at a certain level. The polo family around the world is very close. Polo people have cool, interesting character; they are self-made people and high-network individuals. Polo is excellent for business.”
This is the second year that Beach Polo Cup Dubai is being held at Skydive Dubai. Its popularity continues to grow, as much for the sport as the social setting. Last year saw Maradona as the guest of honour.
“This year, we have almost 300 people flying in from Europe,” Katiela said. “They pay their own tickets, they pay their hotels. The polo crowd are big spenders and enjoy the good life, and this country offers everything for a great lifestyle. We like mixing them with people who live here. We want to make a cultural bridge, make the people communicate, create ideas and business but also friendships.”
Katiela says sponsors increasingly are getting on board.
“Sponsors will discover that this country is a platform to activate their brands for the whole region. Whatever is hip in the UAE is hip in the Middle East.”
Katiela has received acknowledgement from the Dubai Government. He said he is “honoured” his sporting brainchild is the only polo event to be taken under the patronage of Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai.
Katiela received the Mohammed bin Rashid Creative Sport Award in January. With such backing, bigger plans are on the horizon for the organisers of Beach Polo Cup Dubai.
“We want to host in 2016, or latest 2017, the first Beach Polo World Cup in Dubai,” Katiela said.
“We’d love to do it now, but we don’t have enough horses. Nobody wants to fly their horses and have them three weeks in quarantine.”
It is an issue he predicts will resolve itself as polo spreads.
“More people are playing polo here, so we will have more horses,” he said. “More clubs will be established; the Habtoor family are creating a huge polo club with four fields and investing a lot of money. There’s Desert Palm, Equestrian Polo Club and the Ghantoot Club in Abu Dhabi is state of the art.
“It’s a way to tell the world, ‘Look how this country is. We are open-minded, we are safe, business-orientated, peaceful and it’s an open gate for everybody who is serious about the quality of life’.”
akhaled@thenational.ae
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