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 ge ...

for

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

. It organises and oversees local rugby, including the annual

Dubai Sevens The Dubai Sevens 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 Sevens has four competitions each year: ...

and

Dubai Women's Sevens The Dubai Women's Sevens is an annual rugby sevens tournament held in Dubai, UAE. The tournament includes several competitions including, since 1994, an international women's invitational competition. Though most entrants are ad hoc sides compos ...

. It became affiliated to

World Rugby World Rugby is the world 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 rug ...

(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, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...

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 United Arab Emirates, UAE, B ...

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

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of t ...

and

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

. 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 Apollo Perelini (born 16 July 1969) is a former dual-code international rugby union and rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s, and has coached in the 2000s and 2010s. He played representative rugby union (RU) for New Zeal ...

* Training and Education Manager - Sami Smara * Support Services Manager - Nezar Mehran

References

{{World Rugby Rugby union governing bodies in Asia

Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

Sports organizations established in 2009 2009 establishments in the United Arab Emirates

History

Board of Directors

Management

See also

References