United Arab Emirates Rugby Federation
The United Arab Emirates Rugby Federation, or UAE Rugby, is the governing body for rugby union in United Arab Emirates. It organises and oversees local rugby, including the annual Dubai Sevens and Dubai Women's Sevens. It became affiliated to World Rugby 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 was administered by the Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union which had been founded in 1974 and oversaw rugby until the end of 2010 in 6 member countries: UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar.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 the in 2009. It is chaired by Sheikh Mohammed bin Maktoum bin Juma Al Maktoum. The 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