The United Arab Emirates Rugby Federation, or UAE Rugby, is the

governing body A governing body is a group of people that has the authority to exercise governance over an organization or political entity. The most formal is a government, a body whose sole responsibility and authority is to make binding decisions in a taken ...

for

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

. It organises and oversees local rugby, including the annual

Dubai Sevens The Dubai 7s is an annual rugby sevens and social event held at The Sevens Stadium in Dubai, UAE. Founded in 1970, the event is the longest running sports event in the Middle East. Events The Dubai 7s has six competitions each year: * World ...

and Dubai Women's Sevens. It became affiliated to

World Rugby World Rugby is the governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international competit ...

(then known as IRB) and Asia Rugby in 2012 as a full status member.

History

Prior to the establishment of a national governing body for UAE, rugby across the

Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...

was administered by the

Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union The Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union (AGRFU) was the governing body for rugby union that represented the Gulf Cooperation Council states until the end of 2010. As well as organising local and regional competitions in UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, ...

(AGRFU) which had been founded in 1974 and oversaw rugby until the end of 2010 in 6 member countries: UAE,

Kuwait Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

Bahrain Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated on the Persian Gulf, it comprises a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island, which mak ...

Oman Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...

and

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

. World Rugby's governance restructuring project for the West Asia region resulted in AGRFU being broken up into separate unions for each member country. The UAE Rugby Federation was the first to be formed in 2009 and the UAE national team inherited the former Arabian Gulf team's world ranking. In 2021, UAE Rugby signed an agreement with GymNation as their new UAE Rugby Federation Representative 15s and 7s teams' official sponsor, providing gym access to all UAE Rugby players

Board of directors

The federation was established by Chairman's Office decree No. 20 of th
General Authority for Sports
in 2009. It is chaired by Sheikh Mohammed bin Maktoum bin Juma Al Maktoum. Th
board of directors for 2016-2021
is as follows: * Faisal Abdulaziz Alzarooni - Vice Chairman * Qais Abdulla Aldhalai - Vice Chairman * Mohamed Sultan Alzaabi - Secretary General * Saood Belshalat - Treasurer * Mohammad Ahmed Shaker - Board Member * Salman Mahmood Hadi - Board Member * Fawzia Mohammed Faridoon - Board Member * Ibrahim Nasser Buhamer - Board Member

Management

* Executive Director - Hazem Hassan * High Performance Manager - Apollo Perelini * Training and Education Manager - Sami Smara * Support Services Manager - Nezar Mehran

References

{{World Rugby Rugby union governing bodies in Asia Rugby Sports organizations established in 2009 2009 establishments in the United Arab Emirates

History

Board of directors

Management

See also

References