Dubai: The Dubai Sports Council (DSC) has announced the launch of a five-year plan to drive the emirate’s sports and football clubs towards financial independence.
Over the course of the next five years, the plan envisions a gradual decrease in the Dubai clubs and football companies’ dependence on Government support through optimum investment of their resources and responsible management, and the strict implementation of a zero-deficit budget plan.
The announcement comes following a meeting of DSC with the top officials of Dubai’s clubs and football companies. Mattar Al Tayer, the Deputy Chairman of DSC, chaired the meeting, which was attended by Khalifa Saeed Sulaiman and Sami Al Qamzi of Shabab Al Ahli Dubai, Rashid Belhoul of Al Wasl, Ahmad Hashim Khoury and Humaid Al Tayer of Al Nasr, and Ali Obaid Al Badawi of Hatta, along with Esmail Al Banna (Shabab Al Ahli Dubai) and Mohammad Ali Amer (Al Wasl).
Saeed Hareb, the Secretary General of DSC, also attended the meeting along with DSC Board members Mohammad Al Kamali, Ahmad Al Shafar and Maryam Al Hammadi, and Nasser Al Rahma, Assistant Secretary General of DSC.
Speaking at the meeting, Al Tayer said: “Our wise leadership has provided Dubai with the best investment opportunities in the world in terms of tourism, business and living through quality lifestyle and services, which contribute towards supporting the development of the sports sector.
“We must be able to translate the directives of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of DSC, and take advantage of the development in all these sectors and activate the investment side of sports through the establishment of accurate and effective financial budgets, and start supporting the work of the clubs through proper investments, at all the clubs without exception.”
Al Tayer added that the directives of Shaikh Hamdan and the strong relationship and cooperation between DSC and the clubs and companies are the foundations of success.
“The coming period requires even more cooperation between the Council and the clubs and football companies as we work to raise the level of the sports sector in Dubai to the level of our ambitions and implement the directives of our wise leadership regarding the development of the sports sector,” he said. “We need to work professionally to optimise the resources available, whether human or financial, or in terms of the available sports facilities.”
Al Tayer stressed that all these goals could be achieved through successful management.
“The management who do not invest the resources and the name of the club optimally, they lead the club into a vortex of failures, debts and financial problems,” he said. “This has become unacceptable and we will not allow these things to happen again through due diligence, cooperation and the application of regulations, which have been developed after studying the situation, as well as the initiatives and recommendations of the Sports Innovation Laboratory, which are being implemented to upgrade the sports sector to a level commensurate with the development witnessed in the other sectors of Dubai, and turn our sports sector into a model for the rest of the world.”
