Al Suwaidi quits top post citing several drawbacks

Dubai: Sultan Saqr Al Suwaidi, has resigned from his key position as General Secretary of the General Authority of Youth and Sports Welfare (GAYSW).

Al Suwaidi has cited several reasons for the decision, but says the main factor was because GAYSW was not an independent body.

"This was one of the reasons which made me quit. GAYSW has to be independent and not under the management of other Ministries," he told Gulf News yesterday. "We expected it to become independent during the last changes, but again it came under the umbrella of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Community Development.

"I think GAYSW has to has a president only dealing with it and should not have other responsibilities. Most of the GAYSW presidents are busy with their Ministries responsibilities and this is not giving them the sufficient time to discuss and decide about sports and youth," Al Suwaidi added.

He said he will be waiting for the cabinet decision to be taken at its weekly meeting today in which the new GAYSW board of directors will be approved.

"I was offered to become the GAYSW board of director's deputy president. But I will wait to see the cabinet decision and then I will decide," he said.

Ebrahim Abdul Malek, under-secretary in Ministry of Public Works and secretary general of the National Olympic Committee, will replace Al Suwaidi as GAYSW general secertary.

Al Suwaidi said that the biggest problem facing GAYSW was lack of financial support.

"We have suffered financial problems for long time. Except the football association, all the other associations are suffering from the poor budget they are getting from GAYSW which is not helping them to run their domestic tournaments or support the national teams," he said. "Without the sufficient financial support we cannot expect the national teams to achieve success.

"The UAE is not a poor country. The government can allocate a bigger annual budget for youth and sports which will help our athletes prepare well before they participate in continental and international tournaments."

Al Suwaidi said that UAE sport was late in implementing democracy. "We left it too late to form our associations and board of directors through elections. We had to do this long ago," he pointed out. "However, we were forming the association boards partly through appointed members and partly through elections, which was not real democracy."

Al Suwaidi said UAE sport was developing, but not swiftly enough. "Since 1990, after we reached the World Cup finals, nothing has been achieved," he said. "The financial problem is still restricting our progress. Without solving this problem, we will not progress and achieve success."

About Ebrahim Abdul Malek, Al Suwaidi said: "good luck and I will be supporting him whenever he needs support."

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Sultan Saqr Al Suwaidi