The Sudanese Community Honors the Boss of the UAE Football
Amidst festive atmosphere, the Sudanese community in Al Ain City was so keen to honor the Al Ain Club for its significant key role it plays in providing ideal services to all segments of the residents of Al Ain City and hosting the away training camp of the two powerhouses of the Sudan’s league. The grand ceremony held by the Sudanese Club in Al Ain City and was attended by H.E. Mustafa Sharif, General Consulate in the Sudan Embassy in Abu Dhabi, H.E. Ghanem Al Hajeri, Chairman of the Al Ain Club Football Company, Sultan Rashid, Board Member of Al Ain Club Football Company and Sports Director, Imad Hasan Bashir, Cultural Consultant, Omar Oshiek, Deputy Sudan’s Consulate in Dubai, Mo’tasim Malik, Chairman of the Sudanese Club in Al Ain, and Nizar Ibrahim, Head of the Sudanese Community in UAE, along with the members of the two visiting teams.
The Sudanese Club honored H.E. Ghanem Al Hajeri, Chairman of the Al Ain Club Football Company, for his dedicated efforts to support the community initiatives in Al Ain City. The Sudan’s Hilal Club Fans Association presented Al Hajeri a memorial shield in appreciation for his decision to assign free seats at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium for the Sudanese fans and his remarkable interaction with the all communities residing in UAE through the various social network platforms and in different occasions. In his turn, Al Hajeri exchanged with Al Hilal Club the shields of Al Ain Club.
On the margin of the ceremony, Al Hajeri held a meeting with the Al Hilal Club delegation headed by Mohammed Abdul Latif Haroon, Head of the delegation. The meeting was attended by Sultan Rashid, Board Member of Al Ain Club Football Company and Sports Director, Izzul Dein Al Haj, Executive Director of Al Hilal Club, Mohammed Abdul Fattah Zughbair, Board Member of Al Hilal Club, Issam Hussein, Member of the Consultation Board of Al Hilal Club, Obeid Al Dhaheri, Head of Corporate Communication in Al Ain Club, and Ahmad Al Ka’abi, Head of Al Ain Fans Affairs.
Al Hajeri underlined that the directives of the senior management of the club stated to furnish all grounds of success for the training camp of the UAE guests. He said: “The directives of H.H. Sheikh Hazza Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice-Chairman of the Executive Council, First Vice President of Al Ain Sports and Cultural Club, First Vice President of the Honorary Council & Chairman of the Board of Directors of Al Ain Sports and Cultural Club, are to make the guests’ stay comfortable and to provide all facilities available to be at their disposal during their training camp in Al Ain.”
During the meeting, the two parties tackled all aspects of the administrative work mechanism and joint goals to further improve the football sector. The attendees also addressed ways of developing means of cooperation to achieve the pre-set goals and meet both parties aspirations in the world of football.
Al Hajeri stressed on the importance of developing communication channels with the powerhouses of Om Dorman. He stated: “All studies and researches indicate that clubs who could not keep abreast with the technical, financial, marketing and commercial development indices will be subject to bankruptcy and be eliminated from the list of the world of football regardless their name or how big they are.” He wen on to say that the football sport has witnessed great developments and logos of the clubs become trademarks that does not recognize the language of loss for several reasons, most importantly that those interested in dealing with the brand enjoy the spirit of belonging and loyalty which means that the quality and gains could be earned through this product is guaranteed.
“The twinning with Al Hilal and Al Merrikh clubs depends mainly on the idea of sports investment and marketing of the product according to the best practices of the football industry. Indeed, focus will be on furnishing grounds of success to have professional football players in football schools and academies,” he said. He highlighted the positive impacts of such a trend as such a move will lead to achieve financial gains in addition to preparing professional players who will be the added value to the club in the future and the national team as well.
Al Hajeri said that the most prominent goal of the sports investment project is to clinch titles, and so the club is required to adopt the up-to-the-minute methods to be adopted for preparing the team for the season and to contract with the best players to enhance its balance with unprecedented achievements that will definitely lead to financial revenues according to the value of the competition.
On the issue of contracting with professional players, he stated that contracting with one of the football stars means additional high cost to be paid by the club. Such a move requires also a professional marketing plan to cover the cost of purchasing such a type of players. “To create the balance required in the club’s treasury and to avoid any possible deficit in the future, it will be much less expensive to focus on the industry of creating professional stars in the football academy, as well as purchasing the cards of the talented junior and young players. The club is also required to develop a marketing plan for the investment of star players after their arrival to the first ball team,” he said.
He added: “Adopting the best practices in the management of football clubs has become imperative and there are no alternative solutions other than developing marketing plans to attract and motivate the football fans and to promote the product through competent and professional staff. We could not rely on the random policies and we have to adopt 3 or 5- year plans as financial gains and clinching titles cannot be achieved except through the culture of giving and the embodiment of the concept of integrated roles in a professional work system in clubs.”
Al Hajeri concluded his statement by saying: “There are a number of ideas at the table to hold a four-team international tournament with the participation of the Sudanese two powerhouses, a European football team and Al Ain FC. The tournament will be held in preparation for the next football season and will be sponsored by the largest national companies who will offer stimulating awards that will enhance the clubs’ budgets with the launch of the new season. The gains set to be achieved through the organization of the tournament will be technical, marketing, commercial and financial especially since the objectives of the clubs cannot be limited to local competition, but there are still the away competitions which are more important.
In his turn, Mohammed Abdullatif Haroun, Head of Al Hilal Club Delegation, expressed his great pleasure along with the members of the Sudanese delegation to have a meeting with the H.E. Mr. Chairman of Al Ain Club Football Company and the Sports Director. Also, he underlined that it is a great opportunity to develop a draft agreement on the issue of twinning with one of the best clubs in Asia that definitely would serve the best interests of the vision of the two big teams in the very near future.
Haroun expressed his high appreciation to H.E. Ghanem Mubarak Al Hajeri who did not hesitate to accept the invitation despite his busy and tight schedule to meet Al Hilal delegation. “Indeed, this reflects his great interest and keenness to further enhance the long-standing historical relationships between the two big and lofty clubs, Al Ain and Al Hilal.”
He added: “The quality initiatives launched by H.E. Ghanem Mubarak Al Hajeri during the meeting reflect a subtle insightful way of thinking and superb knowledge in the science of football affairs management. He signed off: “It is indeed such way of management that will lead clubs to achieve the highest levels of success indices.”
