Dubai: Officials from the UAE Football Association (UAE FA) and Tennis Emirates (TE) are confident of bolstering the grassroots base of both sports after a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two entities was signed.
UAE FA President Yousuf Al Sarkal and TE Vice President Abdul Rahman Falaknaz signed the MoU at the FA headquarters in Al Khawaneej, Dubai, on Thursday and both said the agreement was a win-win situation for football and tennis.
The agreement is valid for an initial period of one year but will be automatically renewed for a further three years. It will see TE and the UAE FA cooperate on several key issues in developing their respective sports, including investment, marketing, match officials and the development of sports among UAE women.
“The basic idea is to reach out to each other and assist each other in furthering the interests of tennis and football, especially among the young players. What I can automatically sense is the development of the base for tennis players and footballers and this in turn can only help both sports to grow in the UAE,” Al Sarkal told Gulf News.
“We feel confident this venture can be successful because football has such a huge following and, more importantly, the FA is more established in developing various aspects of the game. We follow a tried and tested method and this can benefit tennis to start with. Should we succeed in this venture, we can reach out to other sports associations and bodies as well.”
In addition to the cooperation with the UAE FA, Falaknaz reiterated that TE will continue following its own path of reaching out to schoolchildren.
“The schools are our nurseries and we rely on them to contribute to the player base. While we will continue aggressively with our drive of getting young new players, we are confident this tie-up with the FA will benefit us in other spheres,” Falaknaz said.
Members from the two bodies will now form a working committee to implement the projects and activities under the auspices of the MoU.
The MoU was signed in the presence of Mohammad Abdullah Hazzam Al Daheri, Acting General Secretary of the UAE FA, and TE board members Ahmad Abdul Malik and Sarak Baker.
