Dubai: The management of Al Ahli Club is hoping that the club’s off-field success will manifest itself on the pitch during the remainder of the season.
“I would have been surprised if Al Ahli had not won both these awards,” Abdullah Saeed Al Naboodah, chairman, Al Ahli Club’s board of directors told Gulf News after receiving the Dubai Sports Council Sports Excellence Awards 2012 for being the ‘Best Football Company’ and the ‘Best Club’ late on Tuesday.
Al Ahli is a big family and the success is for the entire family,” he added.
The annual awards, now in its second year, were presented by Shaikh Mansour Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President of Al Shabab Al Arabi Club, along with Mattar Al Tayer, vice-chairman, DSC, and Dr Ahmad Sa’ad Al Sharif, general secretary, DSC.
“I credit all our staff and workers right from the lowest employee to the board officials for this success. We set ourselves a target of being the best club and everyone worked continuously to achieve this goal throughout the year. In addition, we also compared ourselves and our activities to the other clubs in Dubai and we knew we were far ahead of the rest,” Al Naboodah noted.
On the pitch too, Al Ahli has had success during the year considering that the club has won 37 different titles in various sports. “But the most important thing we have done is change our way of thinking. I don’t say we are 100 per cent there, but we are trying to be right at the top,” Al Naboodah added.
The chairman further reiterated and hoped that these two awards would propel the club’s ambitions on the playing pitch. Al Ahli have done well in patches on the domestic football scene as they lie in fourth place with 18 points after nine rounds — just four points off league leaders Al Ain.
“Awards and rewards are meant to motivate everyone and I sincerely hope our players will have this belief in themselves and continue doing the hard work that they have been doing since the start of the season,” he said.
Also getting recognition on the night was a group of sponsors who have supported the various initiatives from the DSC during the course of the year. Prominent among these was Emirates airline and Shaikh Majid Al Mualla, its senior vice-president for commercial operations for the GCC, Middle East and Iran was pleased. “Our commitment to community is deep and we are always willing to back such initiatives so that we can give back to the communities that we operate in. This recognition will give us more responsibility and keep us focused towards uplifting society through sports,” Shaikh Mansour said.
