Al Falah and Shamkha // Littered with jagged rocks and broken glass, the dark football pitches here are the last places children would want to gather for informal kickabouts. But for those who live in these barren housing developments, about 40km outside Abu Dhabi on the motorway to Sweihan, there is little choice. After nightfall, the lack of lighting inside the dilapidated facilities forces them onto nearby streets or roundabouts. "If we had cars, believe me, we would all go to Abu Dhabi and play right now - every day," says Abdulaziz, 15, who plays football most evenings with his friends. But Abdulaziz and his friends are too young to drive, leaving them bored and disgruntled in the two desert outposts far from the recreational facilities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Most of the pitches are neglected, with discarded crisp packets, shattered bottles and cigarette ends strewn about. Football matches can be bloody affairs, leaving youngsters plucking shards of glass from feet and knees. Several schools in these neighbouring developments have indoor gyms, but the children say they are shuttered during the scorching hot summer months. "I've never played football inside during the summer," says Abdulaziz, who uses his blue scooter to ferry his friends home after games. "I'd love to, though." Over the past few years, the pink, purple and cream-coloured villas in Al Falah and Shamkha have been steadily occupied by thousands of mainly Emirati nationals who have moved from neighbouring cities such as Shahama, Bani Yas and Bahia. Unlike developments springing up in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, a cosmopolitan mix of nationalities drawn by ethnic restaurants and entertainment, Al Falah and Shamkha are bereft of all but the bare essentials: mosques, a few Civil Defence fire stations and a handful of shops selling confectionery and butter-basted shawarma. Street signs are few and far between, while speed bumps often go unpainted, giving an unpleasant shock to drivers unfamiliar with the area. Petrol stations, restaurants and shopping malls, along with medical facilities, are tens of kilometres away. "We're so far out that the taxis don't even come here," says Nafik, 16, from Al Falah. During the summer, while parents drive to work in Abu Dhabi or Dubai, teenagers spend their days watching television or playing hours of video games, the scorching temperatures in effect confining them to their villas for most of the afternoons and into the early evenings. "In the morning we sleep, we eat, we sleep, and then we watch television or invite friends over for PlayStation, or we go back to sleep," Nafik says. But as sunset approaches and temperatures drop, hordes of young men take to the streets in shorts and trainers or leather sandals. The young footballers of Al Falah call themselves Team Shamar and dream of playing on Zayed Sports City's indoor pitches, where football goals have proper nets, lights and air conditioning. Their own pitch has been without lighting for more than a year since fuses in a utility building were damaged, according to the teenagers. The door to the entrance of the building is missing and as children come and go they pass by electrical wiring protruding from grey metal boxes. "We called Abu Dhabi Municipality, all the municipalities, about it," claims Faleh Shomeiri, 23, who styles himself the Team Shamar coach. "They're sleeping. Seriously, they're all sleeping. No one has come here to try and fix it." After sunset, Team Shamar matches move to the dimly lit streets. When adults tell the players to stop, they move to roundabouts and patches of wasteland. "There aren't good places here for us, not like in Abu Dhabi," says Mr Shomeiri. Some boys from the developments are said to have joined groups of reckless drivers trying out dangerous stunts, often leading to accidents, in SUVs and sport vehicles. Others have been painting the walls of nearby schools with graffiti, scrawling out their names and profane phrases. For many, the highlight of each week is the Friday family trip into Abu Dhabi or Dubai. Ibrahim, Mansour and Khaled, teenage residents of Shamkha, say they enjoy sampling Dubai's attractions. "In Dubai there's so much," says Ibrahim, 15, standing in front of his family's villa with friends. "Oh, they have billiards there, bowling, tennis, shopping. "We don't have many of those things here. Well, actually, we don't have any of it." hnaylor@thenational.ae
