United Arab Emirates Football Association

United Arab Emirates Football Association
AFC
Short nameUAEFA
Founded1971
HeadquartersAbu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates[1]
FIFA affiliation1974
AFC affiliation1974[2]
WAFF affiliation2001
UAFA affiliation1974
AGCFF affiliation2016
PresidentHamdan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan
Vice-PresidentAbdullah Nasser Al Jneibi
General SecretaryMohammed Hazzam Al Dhaheri
Websitewww.uaefa.ae

The United Arab Emirates Football Association (UAE FA; Arabic: الاتحاد الإماراتي لكرة القدم) is the governing body of association football, beach soccer and futsal in the United Arab Emirates.

Current association staff

Name[3] Position
United Arab Emirates Sheikh Hamdan AL NAHYAN President
United Arab Emirates Abdullah AL JUNAIBI Vice President • Commercial and Marketing Advisory Committee - Member
United Arab Emirates Obaid AL SHAMSI Vice President
United Arab Emirates Mohammed AL DHAHERI General Secretary • Youth Boys’ Competitions Committee - Member
United Arab Emirates Hesham ALZAROONI Treasurer
United Arab Emirates Salim AL NAQBI Media And Communications Manager
Belgium Jan VAN WINCKEL Technical Director
Romania Cosmin OLAROIU National Coach Men
Netherlands Vera PAUW National Coach Women
United Arab Emirates Salem Ali AL SHAMSI Chairperson of the Referees Committee
England Lee PROBERT Head/Director of the Referees Department
Egypt Mohamed ELASHMAWI Referee Coordinator

President

The following is a list of selected presidents of the United Arab Emirates Football Association including pre-UAEFA era.

President Term
Mubarak Al Nahyan 1957–1961
Ghanem Ghabbash 1973–1974
Mana' Al Maktoum 1974–1976
Sultan Al Nahyan 1976–1981
Hamdan Al Nahyan 1984–1993
Abdullah Al Nahyan 1993–2001
Saeed Al Nahyan 2001–2002
Yousuf Al Serkal 2004–2008
Muhammed Al Rumaithi 2008–2011
Yousuf Al Serkal 2011–2016
Marwan Ghalaita 2016–2020
Rashid Al Nuaimi 2020–2023
Hamdan bin Mubarak 2023–

Activity

At the level of developing the national cadres, the FA chose 2010 as the Year of the National Coach and signed various agreements with some national associations in the game for development and training including Germany, Spain, Czech, Italy and Egypt. The national coaches took over the youth and junior national teams and they were provided with financial support.

At the organizational level, the FA hosted the FIFA Club World Cups in 2009 and 2010, the 2009 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup and other friendly and official championships and supported the women football and launched the Futsal in collaboration with sports council within the country. The next step is to organize and host the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

In 2010, UAEFA partnered with the Mubadala Development Company to launch the UAEFA Grassroots Festivals, a state-wide campaign to recruit and train certain players.[4]

In July 2011, a 3-year sponsoring deal was signed with Panasonic.[5] In January 2016, UAEFA signed a partnership with the United States Sports Academy to provide UAEFA a football club operators licensing program.[6]

In December 2016, UAEFA renewed its partnership with the Japan Football Association.[7]

In February 2017, UAEFA warned 46 football players (including Asamoah Gyan) about their inappropriate hairstyles that did not conform to its guidelines.[8]

In October 2017, UAEFA requested that the 23rd Arabian Gulf Cup be postponed while the issue with Qatar was being resolved.[9]

Management

League system

Tier 1: UAE Pro League
Tier 2: UAE First Division League
Tier 3: UAE Second Division League
Tier 4: UAE Third Division League

Domestic Cups

Defunct tournaments

  • UAE Vice-presidents Cup
  • UAE Federation Cup

Women's competition

  • UAE Women's Football League

National teams

Honours

  • Gold medal AFC Dream Asia Award: 2012
  • Gold medal AFC President’s Recognition Award for Grassroots Football – Gold Category: 2025
  • Gold medal AFC Grassroots Charter – Gold-level Member: 2024
  • Gold medal AFC League Development Programme Award: 2021
  • Gold medal AFC Golden Award for Medical Excellence: 2025

Men’s National Teams

Intercontinental

  • Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup
    • 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Third place: 2012, 2013, 2019

Continental

Regional

  • FIFA Arab Cup
    • 2nd place, silver medalist(s) Runners-up: 2009
    • 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Third place: 2025
  • Arabian Gulf Cup
  • AGCFF U-17 Gulf Cup
    • 1st place, gold medalist(s) Champions: 2006, 2009, 2010, 2013
    • 2nd place, silver medalist(s) Runners-up: 2008, 2025
    • 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Third place: 2003, 2011, 2012, 2016
  • WAFF U-20 Championship
    • 2nd place, silver medalist(s) Runners-up: 2019
  • GCC Beach Games
    • 2nd place, silver medalist(s) Runners-up: 2025

Other

  • UAE International Cup
    • 1st place, gold medalist(s) Champions: 1996, 1998
    • 2nd place, silver medalist(s) Runners-up: 1999, 2009
    • 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Third place: 2001
  • Oman Cup
    • 1st place, gold medalist(s) Champions: 2000
  • Kirin Cup
    • 1st place, gold medalist(s) Champions: 2000
  • OSN Cup
    • 1st place, gold medalist(s) Champions: 2013

Women’s National Teams

Intercontinental

Regional

Men’s Clubs

Intercontinental

Continental

Regional

  • AGCFF Gulf Club Champions League
    • 1st place, gold medalist(s) Champions: 1992, 2001, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015
    • 2nd place, silver medalist(s) Runners-up: 1993, 2005, 2011, 2012
    • 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Third place: 1988, 1998

Other

  • UAE–Qatar Super Cup Series
    • 1st place, gold medalist(s) Champions: 2024, 2025, 2025, 2025, 2025, 2026, 2026
    • 2nd place, silver medalist(s) Runners-up: 2024, 2026, 2026
  • Granada City Cup
    • 1st place, gold medalist(s) Champions: 2025
  • UAE–Morocco Super Cup
    • 1st place, gold medalist(s) Champions: 2015, 2016

See also

References

  1. ^ FIFA.com. "Member Association – United Arab Emirates – FIFA.com". fifa.com. Retrieved 2020-11-04.
  2. ^ "AFC BARS ISRAEL FROM ALL ITS COMPETITIONS". The Straits Times. Reuters. 16 September 1974.
  3. ^ FIFA.com. "Member Association - United Arab Emirates". www.fifa.com. Retrieved 2026-01-24.
  4. ^ UAE Football Association and Mubadala Kick Off Grassroots Football Festivals, Mubadala.com, 17 April 2010
  5. ^ Panasonic links up with UAE Football Association, Soccerex.com, 26 July 2011
  6. ^ United Arab Emirates Partners with United States Sports Academy for Football Education Archived 2017-12-01 at the Wayback Machine, Ussa.edu, 13 January 2016
  7. ^ JFA renews partnership with United Arab Emirates, Jfa.jp, 2 December 2016
  8. ^ Mike Henson, Asamoah Gyan deemed to have 'unethical hair' in United Arab Emirates, Bbc.com, 15 February 2017
  9. ^ Qatar Gulf Cup boycott is over Kuwait's FIFA ban, UAE FA says, Sbs.com.au, 18 October 2017
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.