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.

Short nameUAEFA

Founded1971

HeadquartersAbu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates^[1]

FIFA affiliation1974

Quick facts AFC, Short name ...

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]
WAFF affiliation	2001
UAFA affiliation	1974
AGCFF affiliation	2016
President	Hamdan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan
Vice-President	Abdullah Nasser Al Jneibi
General Secretary	Mohammed Hazzam Al Dhaheri
Website	www.uaefa.ae

Close

Current association staff

More information Name, Position ...

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

Close

President

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

More information President, Term ...

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–

Close

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]