General Authority of Sports and UAE Handball Federation explore future growth opportunities

H.E Sheikh Suhail Bin Butti Al Maktoum, Executive Director of the Sports Development Sector at the General Sports Authority, met H.E Nabil Mohammed bin Ashour, President of the United Arab Emirates Handball Federation, at the headquarters of the federation in Dubai. During the visit, discussions were held on the federation’s strategic agenda, plans for future development, and framework to mitigate the challenges in order to ensure better performance by the national teams.

Al Maktoum was accompanied by Abdul Aziz Hosan, Director of the Competitive Sports Management at the General Authority of Sports and the meeting was also attended by members of United Arab Emirates Handball Federation’s board of directors. The meeting further addressed key challenges the federation faces and explored new avenues for better solutions.

Sheikh Suhail said: “We look forward to improving coordination with all federations following the directives from the government to promote collaboration in the sports sector to achieve more victories. Our partnership with the federation aims to explore innovative solutions for development of administrative work and promote management governance. This will ensure technical progress and promote the development of handball in collaboration with clubs and partners.”

H.E added: “We laud the federation’s continuous effort to strategize future agendas which are aligned with the vision of our wise leadership and government. They put forward new prospects to implement best practices that will attract and develop talents. The federation offers optimal training conditions for our teams which increases the winning expectancy in continental and intercontinental championships.”

Mohammed bin Ashour expressed his gratitude towards the efforts of the authority in promoting handball. He said: “We commit to achieve best results keeping in mind the directives of our wise leadership. We fully support the authority’s vision in establishing strategic agendas to organise future efforts and find best solutions to tackle the challenges we face. This reflects our ambitions to improve the federation’s performance and promote stronger partnerships with clubs and sports institutions.”

The federation laid out its strategic plan for 2020-2024 during the meeting. The strategy highlighted a need for a sustainable system to bring in new referees, vocational courses for the administrative staff, promoting competition and maintaining healthy relationships with clubs and sports institutions. It also outlined a scientific method of choosing players and ways to join sports clubs and further explained a need for a sustainable managerial and financial system.

The General Authority of Sports supports the efforts of sports federations to promote better collaboration with the government, sports institutions, and private sector to create a comprehensive system in the sports industry. This is aimed at promoting administrative systems and exploring better ways to attract and develop talented players to increase the winning rate in all sports, creating a strong presence of the UAE in international sports forums.