Dubai: The Organising Committee of the Fifth Nad Al Sheba (NAS) Sports Tournament has allocated nearly Dh4 million as prize money for the futsal and volleyball competitions.
The decision was taken by the organising committee, led by chairman Major General Abdullah Khalifa Al Merri, Commander-in-Chief of Dubai Police, who is also a member of the DSC board of directors, at its meeting held at the Dubai Sports Council (DSC) premises late on Tuesday.
Organised under the patronage of Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Sports Council, during Ramadan, the members of the organising committee voted in favour of an increase in the prize money this year. This year’s competitions will be held under the theme ‘Unlimited Abilities’.
After deliberation, the members of the committee voted to increase the total prize money for futsal to Dh2.3 million and an additional Dh1.56 in the volleyball competition.
To be held from the fourth day of Ramadan, the annual tournament will also feature competitions in basketball, wheelchair basketball, road races, cycling, padel tennis and fencing besides futsal and volleyball.
The organising committee also made minor changes in rules for conduct of the futsal and volleyball competitions in an attempt to further improve the competitive level.
In futsal, the number of teams has been cut down to 12 from 16. Of these, the four semi-finalists from last year will be joined by eight teams, who will be required to qualify through a preliminary competition.
Teams will be allowed to register 16 players instead of 14 during the preliminary rounds, while each team will be allowed to have three goalkeepers instead of two.
As per the new amendments, the eight qualifying teams will be allowed to draft in an extra player taking the number up to five instead of four players as in the past editions. Each team will be allowed to bring in four professional foreign players, of which only three will be allowed to be on the pitch at any time.
In the volleyball, each team will now be allowed to register 14 instead of 14 players, while the four teams coming through the qualifiers will be allowed to register six players.
Others who attended the meeting were Salah Amin, Board Member at DSC and Deputy Chairman of the Organising Committee along with Hassan Al Mazroei, Tournament Director and members Ali Al Mutaiwa’a, Rashid Amiri, Abdul Hamid Al Attar, Ali Omar Al Beloushi and Adel Al Bannai.
