The five star Le Royal Meridien Hotel in Dubai in January sounds great - and believe me it is great! Never mind Ali Baba and the 40 thieves.

We're here with Nickey Brennan and the Vodafone GAA Allstars.

It's the annual trip which has seen us in the past go to places like San Diego, Hong Kong and Singapore and I can say that Dubai is as good as any of them.

The only drawback is that it's the biggest construction site in the world.

Would you believe 75 per cent of the world's cranes are here building multi high-rise hotels, financial centres and top of the range luxurious apartments overlooking the Arabian Gulf.

It's like Disney with a different accent.

It's a place which now attracts premiership footballers by the dozen and it's not hard to see why they come as our own superstars of gaelic footballers enjoy the trappings of five star luxury.

The Allstars are here to play their exhibition game today at the Dubai Polo Grounds and the Dubai Celts club have made a huge effort to ensure everything has gone off without a hitch.

Along with the Allstars are members of the Limavady Wolfhounds club who are one of two Irish clubs competing at the Gulf Games this weekend.

The other team is St Vincents of Dublin.

While the games are important it's fair to say the lads have been enjoying themselves.

The staff at the local hostelry Fibber Magees can certainly testify to that! The GAA do many things wrong but the Allstars trip isn't one of them.

No stone is left unturned to ensure that the cream of the sport's every need is catered for.

Also out here is Ulster President Micheal Greenan and would you believe as I predicted a couple of weeks ago, Tyrone would beat Cavan in the Dr McKenna Cup but then lose the points for the victory over Derry so that the Council can be seen to be in charge.

The McKenna Cup is far from people's minds over here and as Mickey Harte continues to fight the cause of his players it's a situation that needs to be sorted out for next year.

It should not be allowed to overshadow the province's secondary competition.

Micheal Greenan steps down next month after three eventful years in charge.

There are many things that I disagree with in the way he's gone about things but you can't take away from the fact that he put the hours in and worked hard.

The journalists out here also work hard (for 10 minutes of every day anyway!)

There is a daily news conference and this week GAA President Nickey Brennan used the opportunity to outline the new rules for the organisation and presentation of championship and national league games for the future.

Whilst not trying to ape their soccer counterparts, there will be a new-look manager's zone with only eight designated officials allowed.

Learning from their experiences Down Under a team runner is being introduced for the purpose of ferrying instructions on to the park and also two water carriers will be allowed for each team.

It's an area which President Brennan has always wanted to tidy up and on the face of it these new regulations will probably help in the overall outlook.

This has all come about after a large dose of common sense.

Initially new rules were introduced for the managers which the latter said were unworkable and done without consultation.

Nickey Brennan moved quickly to ease the worries of the managers and these new guidelines and regulations have come about after discussions with them.

The President hinted out here that avenue of communication will remain open throughout the course of this year's competitions.

From camel rides back to Croke Park
Please don't be jealous.

We had a great time this week at the Wild Wadi water park.

And we also had an amazing night's fun at Nad Al Sheba racecourse to kick off the Dubai International festival of racing which concludes in March with the richest horse race ever, the $$6million World Cup.

Like us, the Sheiks take their racing very seriously.

On the bus back from the racing we passed the palace of His Highness, Sheik Mohammed Al-Maktoum, the vice-president and ruler of Dubai.

By all accounts he's about to write a cheque to take over Liverpool Football Club.

I hope it goes through and he can construct a team as well as he is constructing this city.

Back to gaelic football and with the league just around the corner, this is a fabulous opportunity for the players and WAGS from all counties to meet on this spectacular social outing.

The sponsors Vodafone ensure that it is a trip to remember and for me it's always a delight to see the likes of Paddy Bradley, Steven McDonnell, Seamus Moynihan, Alan Brogan and Peter Canavan (pictured) get a chance to let their hair down (well obviously that doesn't apply to the Sultan of Errigal Ciaran who doesn't have any hair!)

Joking aside it's a pity that we won't be able to see the wee maestro running out on February 3 to share in a moment of history for the GAA when Tyrone face Dublin.

The attendance record for the national league was the Down v Offaly final in 1963 which attracted 73,000 punters.

That record will surely go under the magnificent new floodlights at Croke Park in that Tyrone game against the Dubs..

Aren't France and England in for a treat when they take on the Irish rugby team at Croker.