In an effort to attract a large Indian expat population, Arabian Gulf League club Al Wahda have added the Indian language Hindi as one of the languages on social media.
In what is perhaps a first in Middle Eastern football, the Abu Dhabi club, four-time winners of the League, opened another twitter account to communicate to fans in Hindi and English.
Some of the other clubs do have English updates but Al Wahda are the first in the region to use Hindi as a language in their communications.
"The media centre of Al Wahda launches the official club account for the English and Hindi speaking public," the club tweeted on the new account.
"Indians loves football and football has broken many obstacles and brought people together. We, at Al Wahda, welcome you at the Al Nahyan Stadium. Let's celebrate together," the club added.
Ahmed Al Rumaithi, chairman of Al Wahda's board of directors, felt it is a great initiative. "We are eager to expand our fan base and there are many Indians who follow football. We want to attract these fans and these are the first steps towards that," said Al Rumaithi.
Hindi is fast gaining acceptance as one of the languages with the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department (ADJD) declaring Hindi as one of the official languages after Arabic and English.
The UAE is home to 9.5 million expats out of which 2.8 million are Indians.
Sport in the UAE is opening its doors with the UAE cabinet approving a Federal Law last year, which will allow all residents in the UAE, regardless of their nationalities, participate in all official sporting competitions held in the country.
Al Wahda are currently in The Netherlands on their pre-season training camp. The Clarets finished third in the League last season and qualified for next year's AFC Champions League. They are also in the last 16 of this year's Asian competition.
