Participants and international sports icons have lauded and praised the atmosphere of discussion, topics and ideas that were presented during the historical ‘Dubai Sports Retreat’ that concluded at the Museum of the Future, earlier this week.

Organized by the Dubai Sports Council under the slogan ‘Dubai: The First Sports Destination’, this meeting of minds brought together 100 decision-makers, specialists, experts and sports stars who sat together, discussed and worked side-by-side to present ideas and suggestions that contribute to achieving development that is consistent with the government’s support for the sports sector in Dubai.

This unique event has acted as an encouragement and motivation of the wise leadership for workers in this sector and society in general to practice sports as a way of life and a basic source of health, happiness and quality of life for members of society. Participants also stressed that the retreat gave them the opportunity to meet up and interact with specialists in fields that complement their work and support the sports sector.

The main session entitled ‘The Power of Sport… An Impact Beyond the Field’, was led by His Excellency Dr. Ahmed Belhoul Al Falasi, Minister of Sports, along with His Excellency Hilal Al Marri, Director General of the Department of Economy and Tourism in Dubai, Her Excellency Hessa Buhumaid, Director General of the Community Development Authority in Dubai, His Excellency Ahmad Bin Byat, Vice Chairman of the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Commercial Bank of Dubai and His Excellency Abdullah Saeed Al Naboodah, Owner of the Dubai Basketball Team.

The second session, entitled ‘Dubai: The Land of Talents… Towards a Promising Future’, was attended by MMA world champion legend Khabib Nurmagomedov of Russia, French and Manchester United skipper Patrice Evra, Lebanon’s basketball legend Fadi Al Khatib along with the Indian pairing of former tennis sensation Sania Mirza and cricketer Harbhajan Singh.

In his opening address, His Excellency Khalfan Belhoul, Vice Chairman of the Dubai Sports Council, spoke about the importance of sports in society and the vision for developing the sports sector in Dubai.

The retreat provided an opportunity for many officials in the sports sector, especially the chairmen of the board of directors and officials of Dubai clubs, to meet and interact with each other and with workers in the government and private sectors.

The athletes informally interacted with specialists from a varied spectrum of society, including corporates, real estate developers, sports investors, and specialists in the field of selecting and developing talents from international academies.

Also availing the benefits of the retreat were His Excellency Khalifa Saeed Suleiman, Head of Protocol of the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Shabab Al Ahli Club, His Excellency Marwan bin Ghalita, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Al Nasr Club, His Excellency Ahmed Al Shafar, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Al Wasl Club, His Excellency Mohammed Ali bin Khalifa Al Badawi, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hatta Club, His Excellency Khalid Ali bin Zayed, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dubai Chess Club, His Excellency Thani Jumaa Belraqad, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dubai Club for People of Determination, and Mohammed Abdullah Hareb, Executive Director of Dubai International Marine Club, and many officials in government and economic institutions.

Major role of sports

Participants in the two interactive sessions agreed on the importance of sports in community development, the happiness of its members and the quality of life. The sports sector is also an important contributor to the national economy and GDP, as well as the availability of opportunities to attract and develop talents and create generations of champions.

Sports also helps in enhancing Dubai’s position on the global sports map, where hosting more international tournaments and events due to the government support, legal legislation, investment incentives and continuous growth of all indicators helps Dubai climb up the ladder in the sports sector.

Economic and societal impact: Al Falasi

Al Falasi stressed on how much he believed in the absolute power of sports to move communities worldwide. “When it comes to sports, I think what first comes to mind in terms of impact is the economic impact. And here I would like to give one example because I’ve spent five years of my life in Melbourne, which has a similar population as Dubai, about 3.6 million. Melbourne plays host to many sporting events, like the F1 Grand Prix, the Australian Open tennis, the cricket and rugby. The impact of sport economically over there is about $4.5 billion. One third of that is from hosting events, while two-thirds is from the active inclusion and activities of sports,” Al Falasi recalled.

“So even though when you talk about economic impact, I think people automatically think about hosting events. Yes, that’s important, but to me, the more important aspect is the whole ecosystem – not only just practicing the sport, but the ecosystem around us. So, the personal coaches, the nutrition, everything that goes around it, I think has a tremendous impact. Secondly, I think it’s a bit undervalued, and that is the social impact of sports. It creates a sense of social cohesion. It creates awareness as well. And I’ll give you an example. The UAE, as you might know, hosted the World Special Olympics in 2019. The official announcement was made in 2016. In the same year, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum saw an opportunity to use that event as a tool for inclusion and renamed these people with disabilities as ‘People of Determination’. So, you can see how hosting such a big event that really celebrates people with intellectual disabilities and changing the naming in the UAE has tremendously changed the way families, schools and the entire community looks at people of determination,” he noted.

“So again, sports, I think is a tool for economic activity. It’s a tool for social cohesion. It’s a tool for inclusion as well. And Dubai, specifically as a city, being a multicultural city, sports play a big role here. When you go and participate in any of the events that Dubai Sport Council hosts, you will see participation from people of different classes and from different backgrounds,” Al Falasi added.

Buhumaid lauds fundamental role of sports

Her Excellency Hessa Buhumaid, Director General of the Community Development Authority in Dubai, noted: “Our participation in the Dubai Sports Retreat comes in implementation of the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mansoor bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, which reflects the vision of our wise leadership towards making Dubai the world’s premier sports destination, which consolidates the pillars of sustainable community development that achieves integration and empowerment for all.

“Sports play a fundamental role in achieving social cohesion and enhancing the spirit of cooperation, and it is here that the importance of the partnership between the public and private sectors is highlighted, as we, at the Community Development Authority seek to employ sports as a tool to enhance the bond between members of society from different cultures and backgrounds, which enhances the values of tolerance and understanding. A large percentage of the volunteer work supervised by the Authority is also harnessed to serve sports activities, which confirms the role of sports as a link between different segments of society and its role in building bridges between all sectors and individuals,” she added.

“Developing community sports facilities and enabling the most vulnerable groups to participate in sports activities are among our top priorities at the Community Development Authority. The Authority works to support different groups through sports activities that include events dedicated to people of determination and senior citizens, in addition to programmes targeting youth, which contribute to improving their quality of life and increasing their psychological and social well-being. We work to organize a group of sports activities in the Authority’s centers, such as Al Barsha Center and Hatta Community Center, which include football, tennis and basketball courts, and that in turn, enhances the spirit of participation and social interaction. Certainly, the ‘Dubai Sports Retreat’ opens new horizons to enhance communication and cooperation with local and international sports bodies and federations, which gives us greater opportunities to achieve our common goals towards building a healthier and happier society,” Buhumaid explained.

“Between 2019 and 2023 there were more than 5,225 volunteering opportunities for society, and 725 of these came directly from sports. We’ve been very active all these years as we wanted a lot of people to really engage in society. And, here we are really talking about UAE nationals, but every nationality from the more than 200 we have in Dubai. Not only is this great for social cohesion, but also to ensure equality, simply because we’ve noticed how sports can actually raise a lot of awareness at various aspects of society,” she noted.

“For example, the Pink Caravan that runs every October for the past few years, has been doing an amazing job in raising awareness about breast cancer. Using sports as a tool to ensure that the awareness is out there is a thing that we’ve seen and experienced, and we want to engage more people on that. Whether they are school kids or whether they are stay-at-home moms, sports is a way to bring the whole community together regardless of one’s colour, one’s ethnic background or language,” Buhumaid stressed.

Top brand awareness for Dubai, Hilal Al Marri

His Excellency Hilal Al Marri, Director General of the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism, ascertained the fact that Dubai is the best example of a global city that uses sports to hoist itself on the map while raising brand awareness for the city.

“In this region, sports have been a huge part of the lives of people. And as Dubai has grown to become one of the leading cities in the world, sports are playing a huge role in this process today. I will mention just three key things that we see, which I think are integral to Dubai’s growth. First, from an economic and investment perspective, you see today that most sports brands have positioned Dubai as one of their global headquarters, one of four or five cities in the world that consider it their global headquarters. You see investment in small and medium-sized companies in the sports industry as one of the fastest growing sectors in the economy. I am not sure if you can walk through an area in Dubai without finding a padel court, a gym or a health facility. All of this points to the growth in sports,” Al Marri complimented.

“The government is also investing heavily. The RTA has built hundreds of kilometres of cycling tracks and I think this will reach 1,000 kilometres by the end of this decade. When you look at tourism, Dubai was initially known for its beaches and shopping. Today, Dubai is known for its health and wellness. People come here to cycle and they come to attend various sporting events. When I say attend, I don’t just mean they come to watch. They come to participate. And this is not just professional athletes, but also amateurs in the various community and sporting events that we organize. This is driving the economy,” he pointed out.

“I think the third pillar is the most important. Being a destination that allows people to exercise at any time of the day and get well, and access to the kind of activities that we are talking about sets the tone for the city and creates the positive environment that drives the city to grow further. This positive mindset is what drives the positive outlook of people, drives the growth in the stock market, drives people to decide to live here and move talent here, and invest here so everything is interconnected. So we should not only look at sport today as a way to develop talent and professionals, which is of course very important, but also as a way to change the city and create a mindset that helps it grow,” Al Marri added.

Ahmed Bin Byat: ‘We have good infrastructure and we need an integration strategy’

His Excellency Ahmad Bin Byat, Vice Chairman of Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy and Vice Chairman of Commercial Bank of Dubai, was all in praise of the retreat. “A forum like this is important at this time to chart the roadmap for the next ten years. Dubai already has a good infrastructure compared to other cities around the world, and Dubai has been successful in organizing major events, and I believe this will continue with the support of the government. We have our major companies such as Emirates Airlines, Dubal and others who sponsor such big events and push them forward year after year. But what we would like to see more of is a clear strategy on how to integrate those living in Dubai and see them included in events, especially individual sports,” he mentioned.

“The Olympics has more than 100 individual events compared to team sports. I am not against football, but I always say that there is a lot of interest and funding that is directed to football, and I do not really see what the quantitative result of this is. If we can engage our schools, most of which in Dubai currently have great facilities for track and field, wrestling, shooting, horse riding and so on, that will add a lot of value for sure,” Bin Byat added.

“This will engage the community and we will get kids involved in the process at a younger age, which means we are sustainable. We are fine with having big events all year round, but we need to engage the community, the families, the parents and the infrastructure that all the private schools invest in. I would like to see my children and grandchildren playing different sports in schools, and I think it would be great if Dubai could come up with a calendar of different individual events and promote them. We pick 10 individual Olympic sports and excel in five of them, for example. That is good enough for the next five years,” he offered.

“On the other hand, Dubai hosts thousands of start-ups and digital companies, but it is difficult to find a sports technology company, for example. So let’s think about funding sports technology in the same way that we fund a lot of food companies, for example. Maybe we need to shift some funding from food to sports,” Bin Byat added.

Dubai helped us achieve the dream: Al Naboodah

His Excellency Abdullah Saeed Al Naboodah, owner of the Dubai Basketball Team, endorsed privatization of sports and the allied sectors. “I have experienced this privatization of sports in general and private sports over the past two years. It has not been an easy journey, but I believe that what we have created here in Dubai would not have happened in any other city, but it happened in Dubai, thanks to the support of the leadership and the cooperation of the departments that helped us establish a professional basketball club in Dubai,” he disclosed.

“At first, this was a crazy dream because we thought of establishing a basketball team that plays in Europe with all the geographies and restrictions in sports. I believe that individual sports, as we know, do not have geographical restrictions, but team sports do. We were lucky after doing our best to achieve the ambition of playing in the European League If we looked at the whole idea three years ago, we would have thought this was unachievable, but thank God, we are here and we have started, and I believe again that if it were not for Dubai, we would not have been able to achieve this task of establishing a privately-owned team,” Al Naboodah admitted.

“No doubt, it was a difficult beginning. We could have established a club and played in the UAE as a professional club or even in Asia, but it is not that easy. We would not have achieved much value if we had not entered the European market because the European market is the real market. Dubai was probably the only place where we could have achieved this feat. If it had been in any other city in the region, it would have been very difficult to achieve what we have done today,” he added.