Sultan Al Mansoori:
SCA supports efforts aimed at transforming UAE-based sporting clubs into economically-successful institutions.
Dr. Obaid Al Zaabi:
Transforming clubs into joint-stock companies sets the ground for reinvesting players' and interested investors' savings.
Marwan bin Ghalita:
We look forward to a new phase where we bring down inflation, seek true professionalism, and rely on our clubs' own resources.
H.E. Eng. Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansoori, Minister of Economy and Chairman of the Board of the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), stressed that UAE-based sporting institutions play significant development roles far beyond merely organizing sports activities. They provide a professional, distinct, and world-class sports product, thus contributing to raising the country's ranking and enhancing its reputation in the sports field.
Al Mansoori said that the interest shown by the UAE Football Association (UAEFA) in the use of sophisticated scientific methods to run sporting clubs and view them as economic entities that contribute to the development plan laid out by the country is considered an exceptional initiative, one that lays the foundations and sets the criteria for a strategic partnership between SCA, as the financial market regulator, and the UAEFA to enhance the competitiveness of the country's sporting clubs.
Al Mansoori added that many of the country's sporting clubs that set up commercial and investment businesses will make use of the initiatives outlined in the MOU, which lays the foundations for a standardized framework through which support can be given to the efforts aimed at transforming these sporting clubs into economically-successful institutions, following global business models. Consequently, sporting clubs will have well-established regulatory frameworks and administrative structures that take into account good governance rules and will be able to fund sporting activities, embark on planned projects, attract the best expertise, and utilize the finest sporting equipment and devices. He further said that the mergers between a number of the country's sporting clubs will lead to the establishment of giant and powerful sporting institutions that are able to compete regionally and internationally in various sports fields.
This followed an MOU signed between SCA and the UAEFA to foster cooperation between the two parties in good governance, provide advice and technical support with respect to mergers between sports institutions, and bolster efforts to drive the transformation of sports institutions into public joint-stock companies.
The MOU was signed between Dr. Obaid Al Zaabi, Acting CEO of SCA, and H.E. Eng. Marwan bin Ghalita, President of the UAEFA.
Following the signing of the MOU, Dr. Al Zaabi made a statement, expressing his pleasure at having laid the foundations for a joint cooperation between the two parties. He applauded the efforts of the UAEFA to develop the football environment in order to make world-class achievements in terms of nurturing emerging talents and serving the community through implementing the standards and rules of global professionalism and institutional excellence, according to the continental sports system and the FIFA standards.
For his part, bin Ghalita praised the signing of an MOU with SCA to promote cooperation between the two sides in transforming sports clubs into public joint-stock companies, promoting the standards of good governance among sports clubs and the UAEFA members, and providing advice and technical support to these clubs.
The MOU provides for cooperation between the two parties within the powers vested in them to support opportunities for making use of each other's capabilities, including putting together a team to devise a general framework concerning transforming sports clubs into public joint-stock companies, which sets the ground for listing them on UAE-based exchanges.