There may not be any Top Boys or Ultras roaming the streets of Abu Dhabi on Saturday afternoons, but, for the first time, policemen in the United Arab Emirates are having to deal with trouble at football matches.

The Abu Dhabi royal family’s proposed £200 million deal to buy Manchester City has been front-page news in the UAE since Thaksin Shinawatra agreed to sell the Barclays Premier League club two weeks ago, but so has the bizarre sight of oil-rich millionaires in white dishdashas getting up to no good at matches.

Fifa has launched an investigation after angry supporters threw bottles at players and officials during the UAE’s 2-1 home defeat by North Korea nine days ago and the Dubai police force has trained 70 horses and 40 dogs to prepare for the worst when the emirates’ first professional league kicks off this weekend.

“We have been training with the French police,” Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed Khalfan al-Mansoori, the director of the emergency department at Dubai Police’s department of security, said. “Prior to each match, we gather all the information surrounding the teams playing, the fans attending and the stadium, and from there we assess what level of security we need.”

Men in the UAE take their football very seriously and thousands are glued to their plasma television screens every weekend to watch live Premier League matches. Shops do a roaring trade in official and unofficial Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal merchandise and demand has started to grow for Manchester City shirts.

Le Coq Sportif, City’s kit manufacturer, is searching for distribution partners in the Middle East and the club’s official website sold more than 300 replica shirts to customers in the UAE last week. Before the proposed takeover by the Abu Dhabi royal family, City were selling about 100 shirts a year.

“You look through sports shops here and it’s only the top four clubs’ shirts and international shirts that are on sale,” Mark Lynch, chairman of the Dubai Manchester City Supporters’ Club, said. “Obviously, that might all change now.” City’s match against Chelsea was shown live on Showtime TV at 8.30pm on Saturday, but most coffee shops in Abu Dhabi were showing repeats of Liverpool’s 2-1 victory against Manchester United when Robinho gave City the lead at the City of Manchester Stadium.

Alcohol is very difficult to find in Abu Dhabi, so the only option for a thirsty supporter is to find a sports bar in a hotel with a drinks licence that is showing the game. The NRG bar in Le Merdien hotel is a popular hangout for expatriates who need a fix of football and beer, but most of its customers on Saturday were too engrossed in watching the Tri-Nations decider between Australia and New Zealand to take much notice of what was going on in Manchester.

When Robinho scored, two Filipino customers were already talking about whether United could get back to winning ways against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge next weekend. Their verdict on City? “Very rubbish.”