Dubai
The board of trustees of the Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Creative Sports Award has chalked out a road map to focus on the empowerment of women during the build-up to the ninth edition of the annual award.
The newly-constituted board of trustees met at the Dubai Sports Council (DSC) premises on Wednesday, and among other things on the agenda, took a decision to back the empowerment of women as decreed by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
Launched in 2008, the Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Creative Sports Award is one of the entities coming under the MBR Global Initiatives announced in 2010 by Shaikh Mohammad in keeping with the ‘UAE Vision 2021’.
With a total value of Dh7.5 million, the committee has already started receiving applications for the award from April 1 with a deadline of August 31 for receiving entries. Only sports achievements of individuals, teams and sports associations from September 21, 2016 till August 31, 2017 will be considered for the award this year.
“The focus will definitely be on the empowerment of women in the UAE, and keeping this in mind the board of trustees has decided to have a perfect build-up towards the awards night [in January 2018] by organising road shows and also featuring the award at various international and national-level forums,” Moaza Al Merri, General Secretary of the award told Gulf News.
“Today we have constituted various committees and sub-committees who have been very interactive in presenting their road maps in the build-up to this prestigious event,” she added.
The award has three separate categories, namely for individuals, teams 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.
“For us at the Dubai Sports Council, this award is like the jewel in the crown and we exert maximum efforts to ensure that only the highest and best standards are adhered to because we have the name of our great leader to the award,” Al Merri noted.
“We have already started receiving nominations online and we expect this number to rise substantially as the weeks pass,” she added.
The arbitration process for the award will commence in October, while the names of all winners will be made public on November 27 before the formal awards function on January 10, 2018.
Last year’s award was won by Princess Haya Bint Al Hussain, the wife of Shaikh Mohammad, Prince Nawaf Bin Faisal Bin Fahad Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia and the International Judo Federation (IJF).
FACT BOX
Total value of the award: Dh7.5 million
Start date for applications: April 1
Deadline for entries: August 31
Arbitration process commences: October 2017
Announcement of winners: November 27, 2017
Awards function: January 10, 2018
Further information, visit: www.mbrawards.com
New Board of Trustees: Mattar Al Tayer (Chairman); Khalid Ali Bin Zayed (Vice Chairman); Moaza Saeed Al Merri (General Secretary); Nasser Al Rahma (Director); Dr Khalifa Al Sha’ali, Ahmad Al Osaymi, Dr Hassan Mustafa, Mustafa Larfaoiu and Muna Bin Samra (all members).
