Dubai: UAE Rugby Federation (UAE RF) general secretary Qais Al Dalai announced his bid to run for president of Asia Rugby on Wednesday.
A tweet from the UAE RF, read: “#UAERF is very excited to learn about @QaisUAE intention to run for @asiarugby presidency. Positive move regionally and for @uaerugby.”
Al Dalai has been general secretary of the UAE RF since 2009. He also became general secretary of Asia Rugby in 2015 and has since held both roles concurrently.
Japan’s Koji Tokumasu is the current president of Asia Rugby but elections to select a new executive committee are due to take place before the end of the year.
Asia Rugby was formed in 1968 and has 31 members across Asia, including the UAE who became full members in 2012.
Al Dalai wasn’t available for comment on Wednesday. However, his candidacy will no doubt accelerate the growth of the UAE RF, which was formed from the break-up of the GCC region-wide collective Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union (AGRFU) in 2009.
The AGRFU was broken up after rugby’s re-admittance into the Olympic movement after a 92-year hiatus at Rio 2016.
With national teams competing at the Olympics needing players who were citizens of the country they were representing, it was decided individual national teams were the best way to grow the game regionally over the expatriate-driven AGRFU.
