Dubai: The Dubai Sports Council (DSC) wants to popularise Brand Dubai among the International Olympic Committee (IOC) family more effectively with the prestigious Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Creative Sports Award.

“For Dubai, this award is one of the best vehicles in spreading the word of what we stand for in the sporting sector, regionally and on the international level,” Dr Ahmad Sa’ad Al Sharif, General Secretary, DSC told Gulf News on the sidelines of a press conference to announce the details of the sixth edition of the award.

The total prize purse for the awards is Dh7 million with the best international sporting body standing to win the top prize of $250,000 (Dh920,000). “Till 2013, we have received nominations from 99 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) who are members of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF), and this accounts for 49 per cent of the IOC family. Our target to get all 203 NOCs turning their attention to this award,” Al Sha’ali promised.

“ So far we have managed to get athletes and officials from 19 Arab countries sending in their nominations, and I am sure this number will increase further this year,” he added.

The acceptance of nominations will commence from April 1 and will go on till August 31. The various jury members and committees will meet between September and October to study and debate the nominations received and the various winners will be announced in the third week of November. The winners will receive their award on January 14, 2015.

Since its institution in 2009, the profile of the award has grown with a 75 per cent increase in the nominations over the past five years.

“In the first year we had 116 nominations in various categories and this figure touched 203 nominations last year,” Al Sharif pointed out.

The award was instituted under the directives of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, in an attempt to recognise creativity in the sports sector, while making the UAE a global hub for sport creativity, leadership and excellence.

After the three editions that honoured creativity of sportsperson and sporting institutions from the UAE and Arab region, the London Olympic Games were declared winners when the award was thrown open to international participation in 2012.

Tunisian world champion swimmer Osama Mellouli and Algerian middle distance runner Tawfiq Makloufi have been among the past winners of the award.

Regulations, laws and nomination forms can be accessed on the website: www.mbrawards.ae