United Arab Emirates Football Association

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.

United Arab Emirates Football Association

AFC
Short name	UAEFA
Founded	1971
Headquarters	Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates[1]
FIFA affiliation	1974
AFC affiliation	1974[2]
President	Hamdan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan
Website	www.uaefa.ae

Association staff

Name	Position	Source
Hamdan bin Mubarak	President	[3][4]
Abdullah Nasser Al Jneibi	Vice-president	[5][6]
Yousif Hussain Alsahlawi Al-Ali	2nd Vice-president	[7]
Mohammed Hazzam Al Dhaheri	General secretary	[8][9]
Hesham Al Zarooni	Treasurer	[10]
Michel Sablon	Technical director	[11][12]
Cosmin Olăroiu	Team coach (men's)	[13][14]
Camila Orlando	Team coach (women's)	[15]
Salim Al Naqbi	Media/communications manager	[16]
Mohamed Al Ashmawi	Referee coordinator	[17]

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.^[18]

In July 2011, a 3-year sponsoring deal was signed with Panasonic.^[19] In January 2016, UAEFA signed a partnership with the United States Sports Academy to provide UAEFA a football club operators licensing program.^[20]

In December 2016, UAEFA renewed its partnership with the Japan Football Association.^[21]

In February 2017, UAEFA warned 46 football players (including Asamoah Gyan) about their inappropriate hairstyles that did not conform to its guidelines.^[22]

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

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

• UAE President's Cup
• UAE League Cup
• UAE Super Cup

Defunct tournaments

• UAE Vice-presidents Cup
• UAE Federation Cup

Women's competition

• UAE Women's Football League

National teams

• United Arab Emirates senior, under-23, under-20, under-17 and women's national association football teams
• United Arab Emirates national futsal team
• United Arab Emirates national beach soccer team

See also

• UAE Pro League Committee