STAFF

Alijah Shakir
(Earl Thomas)

An NFL superstar defensive end on a "name" Minnesota defense, Thomas--who took the Muslim name Shakir after graduating from college--became a players union rep, banging up against owners in a manner he calls "uppity", but which was widely respected. Disenchanted because he couldn't get a coaching job, Alijah turned down broadcast spots to take over the Scimitars, where his race, religion, and marquee name found favor. And stepped into a cauldron of international intrigue. Not to mention the fallout from his live-in girlfriend and embattled wife.

Rush Clayton

One more victim of thinking he could turn the Raiders around, Rush was sacked for, as he puts it, "possession of my own brain with intent to use it". He hopes the publicity at Dubai will help him land another head coach job and live down the stigma of a nightmare season at Oakland.

Bashir Ahmad

Basically a mousy, Brit-educated accountant, Bashir finds himself manager of a football team, as baffled by Alijah's speech as his descent into rowdy locker rooms. Complicated by the fact that he's really a spy for the team ownership, and Alijah knows it.

PLAYERS

Randy Hoffman

A big, good-looking, boyish ex-Broncos offensive lineman, Randy is not the brightest guy around. But fortunately has a girlfriend as smart as she is beautiful. But he could screw that up if he gets back into football and steroids. Which is what he's doing.

Lucius Evers

A huge high school prodigy who just can't pass the tests to get the scholarship colleges are dying to give him, the teenaged Lucius comes to live with Alijah and Monisha and play for Dubai, hoping it will get him into the pro job he needs and the NCAA won't allow.

Maafu Tatouipatulo

"Penalized twenty yards from the infraction and two years on a road crew" for demolishing another college player and referee, the hulking Samoan is a force to be reckoned with on the field, and a massive loose cannon everywhere else.

Sonny Charter

With an ex-wife trying to corral him in court and strip him clean as any blitzing linebacker, and an underage hooker pressing charges, Sonny decides an offshore career would be in his interests. And a move up from perennial back-up to starter.

Rashad Al-Mahdi

A running back with experience in the American schools his family sent him to learn more about oil and government, Rashad's secret identity is that he's not only a prince, but also an owner of the Scimitars. No problem: but the forbidden American gold-digging redhead he brought home and stashed just might be.

Jimmy Cale

When Rush calls Cale an "adventurer and committed fan", he's means he's the guy who would pull Mission Impossible jailbreaks to get high while in drug rehab. But the World One League doesn't test, and Jimmy thinks speed is what wide receivers should be all about.

Makim Al-Nassan

Harvard-educated Makim is another secret prince playing for the love of the game. Probably the smartest and most politically savvy player on the team, he still misses a lot of what's coming.

Faruq Mashinam

When they sign this soccer-style kicker to the special teams "bomb squad", Alijah and Rush don't know how ironic they are: he's a member of an extremist terrorist cult who've decided they can use his presence on the team... and in other countries. He's in trouble before he even meets Yarema.

CHEERLEADERS

Karli Jorgensen

The cheerleaders are mostly Americans, and mostly "Desperate Semi-Housewives". Gymnast, swimsuit model, all-American babe, Karli is also a smart cookie. She throws together a cheerleader squad and sniffs out a couple of plots...but is losing her man, Randy, to forces beyond her control.

Monisha Hartley

Monisha came to Dubai with Alijah, while his wife pointedly stayed in Houston, because "over in Moslem-town I'm same as Mrs. Shakir". She's woman enough for Alijah, more motherly than Lucius' own mother ever was...and a street-hip chick who doesn't duck a rumble.

Raylene Arliss

Panhandle trailer trash with cheerleading scholarship to Oklahoma, where she meets the gold-digger's trifecta--a real-life prince. And Rashad is wild about her. Enough to bring her home and hide her from his family and religion. But she's a redhead, she's greedy, and she's trouble.

Yarema

A Moroccan prostitute with prospectus of gold, Yarema moved to Dubai for the big chips, ends up finding fame on the sidelines camera and young Lucius, whose gentle naiveté (and remarkable endowment) touch a part of her heart she thought was dead forever. Then there's also Faruq, the al Queda punter who's infatuated with her even at risk of death.

OWNERS

Sheikh Fakhir Al-Mahdi

Rashad's father--one of the Emirs the Emirates are named after--saw worldwide realpolitic potential behind his son's dreams of a football team, but it places him on a tightrope between American influence, Islamic insurgence, and his own royal family.

Emir Ibrahim Al-Nassan

Makim's father has groomed his son for leadership, only to see him plunge into the American slacker lifestyle. He sees the team as a maturing influence, but can also see it as a card that can be played many different ways.

Emir Al-Hasadi

A pompous emissary between the Emirates, Al-Hasadi is a major voice behind the idea that America is in eclipse and that Arabs should stake their future on China and India and Africa. He sees the football league as a dangerous anchor to the old paradigms, but possibly also a tool to help push The West over the brink.

OTHER FACTORS

Muhammad Zaid

A highly respected, educated ultra-conservative Moslem cleric whose Madrasa school has become a ring of rich, power-hungry Arab businessmen. And he is suddenly confronted not only with the spectacle of football games, but scantily-clad cheerleaders as well.

Menhir Akbar

A brooding, vicious terrorist, Menhir leads his cell with an iron hand, but indulges Faruq's new job as kicker for the Scimitars...because he sees several ways he might use it, none of them good.

Lurkers and Spooks

The CIA has taken the team and league as a flag of The American Way, several extremist organizations lurk around what they take as an abomination, business jackals circle the fledgling franchise, and the structure of Islam itself is making up its mind.

Dubai Scimitars

"Not just champions of Dubai, or of the Emirates, or even of the Arab peoples...it is a sword of Islam itself", an owners says of the series' "home team".

Red Star Over China

"It's not about Beijing, it's not even about China," a CIA analyst says. "They sell as many jerseys in Japan, Korea, Singapore, even goddam Taiwan. They should have called it the Yellow Peril."

Mexico City Golden Sun

Mexico City, the world's largest. Aztec Stadium, biggest in the world. Carlos "Televisa" Slim, richest man in the world. Sound like a football franchise? Toss in Venezuelan oil money and it's looking like "Latin America's Team".

Volograd Hammer

New Russians don't need sickles. But they still like a Hammer and post-Soviet billionaires are buying up a team to kick Americanski butt.

New Delhi Cobras

Funded by high-tech and burgeoning middle-class markets, the Cobras reach out to the entire Hindu world, as well as new economies they are uniting.

Tripoli Elephant

A Pan-African team funded by owners as wildly divergent as Libyan oil and South African diamonds, the Elephant is big, black, powerful... and has a long memory.

Sidney Southern Cross

"Whatever there is in the Southern Hemisphere...or will be, if you get my drift...this is who they'll root for." It's not like Aussies didn't already play football, hell Darren Bennet is the commissioner.