Dubai: The annual Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Sports Creativity Award has recorded a 50 per cent increase in the number of entries.
Mattar Al Tayer, Vice-Chairman, Dubai Sports Council (DSC) and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the award announced that the ninth edition of the Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Sports Creativity Award has attracted a total of 297 entries at the August-end deadline.
A part of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives in keeping with the ‘UAE Vision 2021’, the Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Sports Creativity Award this year has 297 entries that far outnumber last year’s 198 files put up before the judging jury.
“This not only constitutes an increase of 99 presentations or more than 50 per cent, but also demonstrates the popularity and prestige of this award across the world,” Al Tayer told media after a meeting of the board of trustees on Sunday.
“The increase in the number during a non-Olympic year is a further confirmation that this award is fulfilling its core goal of reaching out to the sporting world like none other,” he added.
Launched in 2008, the award had recently appointed Dr Moza Al Merri as the new general secretary with a promise of taking the initiative to a truly global audience.
With a total value of Dh7.5 million, the committee commenced receiving applications from April 1 keeping in mind the August-end deadline. The award will consider sports achievements of individuals, teams and associations registered between September 21, 2016 to August 31.
There are three separate categories in the award — individual, team and federations. The individual category rewards individual players, coaches, administrators and referees who have attained sports creativities at local, Arab and international level, while the team award is allocated to teams that have attained sports creativity at the local, Arab and international levels and the final category is given away to sports creativity at local, Arab and international platforms.
Al Tayer said that the award will now follow its timeline whereby the board of trustees would meet regularly from October before the list of winners is made public on November 27. The formal presentation of awards will be held on January 10, 2018.
