Why is dundee united called arabs

The ice sheet melted away like a DFC defence at the feet of Luggy and Ralphie, but all the grass was burned off too! And the name stuck.

And anyway, it is the fans who are known as Arabs, not the team. More investigation was required. Gamal Abdel Nasser was the de facto leader of the Arab world, from his election as president of Egypt in and throughout the s. He was a giant of Middle Eastern politics. He defied the West during the Suez Crisis and became the figurehead of pan-Arabism, the push to unite all Arab nations.

He inspired devotion from his followers and fear in European capitals in equal measure. An inspirational speechmaker, to this day he is regarded, by some, as an icon, a strong man who brought decisive leadership to a troubled region.

We shall let Spider take up the story of the sequence of events that led his name to affect the city of Dundee. Join Date May Posts Join Date Jan Posts Join Date Jan Posts 3, Racist fc Still can't believe that song was played at dens park Filthy club with horrible fans. Join Date Feb Posts Join Date Jul Posts 16, Originally Posted by Wullie. In during a pre-season tour to dubai, a player who was on trial with us was caught finger-banging a camel.

So my theory is Arab was a term used for poor people and United were always the poor relations in the first half of the s and Arabs was possibly a derisory term.

Join Date Sep Posts 1, Page 1 of 2 1 2 Last Jump to page:. All times are GMT. The time now is AM. How on earth did this happen? By Liam Kirkaldy for Nutmeg magazine. I n , the BBC aired a documentary called Welcome to Lagos that explored life in one of the fastest growing cities in the world. Shown on BBC2, the production company behind it went on to win a Bafta. But, most importantly, episode two of the series included a look at Makoko — a community built on stilts, on top of Lagos Lagoon — where a resident called Chubbey explained that survival in the city required a certain degree of street smarts.

After that the scene cut away and the documentary continued. It is an upsetting thing to think about, for a United fan. This is a country of over million people and they have apparently been using Dundee United as a byword for a fool for years. Why would they do this? But why? And how did it happen? Dundee United, unfortunately, did not respond to requests for comment on the question.

Yet a glance at the internet shows theories do exist. One, popular on online chatrooms, is that the phrase stems from the Fifa under world championships. The tournament was actually a very successful one for the Scotland unders team, which made it to the final before losing to Saudi Arabia on penalties. Records show Nigeria were also present, with the team knocked out by the Saudis in the quarters. Significantly, that match was played at Dens Park. So could this be the answer?

Is it possible that a contingent of mischievous Dundee fans could have played a part in the origins of the phrase? Experience of Dundee fans would certainly suggest it is plausible.

Yet use of the phrase seems to go back further than the late s, with a TV ad for an anti-malarial drug, shown in Nigeria years before, including use of the term.

That means that by the time the world championship was taking place, the Nigerian youth team players would have been well aware that a Dundee United was a foolish thing to be. That means that, even if the Dens Park theory is right, it would seem to have backfired. I heard it a few times from relatives. I knew the phrase but never made that connection at all.

It was an unfortunate blow for the team languishing in the Championship, but an important development in the investigation: whatever the reason, Dundee also means an idiot in Nigeria. Unfortunately, Dundee FC were apparently unaware of this.