How might we identify, engage, develop and reward young football players so that we can nurture and track their development wherever football is practiced in the UAE?

The United Arab Emirates Football Association (UAE FA) is mandated with supporting and developing the UAE football ecosystem and increasing the competitiveness of the UAE in the international arena. The key to achieving this goal is having a vibrant football ecosystem, where youth talent can be identified and nurtured into professional footballers.

What are the problems to solve?

1. UAE Football Association (UAE FA) has a limited number of youth players currently registered. Data suggests that there are many male and female youth playing football at least once a week, and many of those are playing in an organized fashion which is going unnoticed
2. The system is currently fragmented with youth playing football within schools, academies, clubs and at home
3. The UAE FA has no mechanism in place to widely identify and encourage the participation and development of the next generation of UAE football stars

Who is most impacted by these problems? 

• Youth talent that don’t have a clear development and career path into UAE football
• Parents and fans who have limited opportunity to channel their youth’s interest in football
• The UAE FA, coaches, teams, managers and clubs who have limited information to identify and nurture the pipeline of young talent.

Guiding principles for solution:

• Fun & Rewarding (gamified)
• Community Focused
• Intelligent Data Capture
• Safe & Secure
• Ecosystem Engagement

Vision

The UAE FA would like to register at least 80,000 football players by 2025 in the UAE, and over 5,000 coaches and parents and ultimately tens of thousands of fans.

To reward and engage players and other audiences such as parents, coaches, clubs, schools and associations in recording insights and generating rich data about young talent

The solution can provide the ability for coaches, clubs, and parents to set challenges to engage young footballers and test their abilities

The longer term vision is to create a 360 view of young players so that the UAE FA and clubs can have a pipeline of emerging young talent to support the growth of the sport in the UAE and success of National teams

Why is this important?

This solution would enable the UAE FA and Football Clubs to identify & nurture the next generation of football talent, and ultimately, be more competitive locally and internationally

As the solution scales, the more robust guidance and training can be provided based on the youth profiles, improving youth’s overall development

This would also support young players to have more fun, be active and engage in positive social behaviour in a safe ecosystem, bringing benefit to youth and their parents.

Want to learn more about the challenge? Watch the Challenge webinar with UAE FA and SportBoost.

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Program benefits include

• Potential partnerships with top level stakeholders in UAE
• Dubai Future Foundation takes zero equity in your business​
• Direct access to key decision makers in government and private sector partners
• Opportunity to apply for the Golden Visa
• Opportunity to be connected with regional investors
• Accelerated process for company setup and formation in Dubai (provided matching business activities)
• State of the art creative workspace and access to prototyping equipment​
• Opportunity to join the most vibrant ecosystem in the region
• Roundtrip airfare to Dubai and paid accommodation for Phase 2 (in-residence) participants​
• Opportunity to be awarded at the Globe Soccer Awards alongside the greatest names in Football
• Possible introduction for shortlisted startups to other sport sector clients upon successful PoC/ Pilot deployment
• Possible opportunity for SportBoost to invest in startups dependant on outcome of PoC/ Pilot with UAE FA

Program timeline 

The 9-week program is structured into 2 phases:

Phase 1: A 3-week virtual program to be conducted in January 2022, where shortlisted companies will work closely with the UAE FA to understand their challenge and propose a solution. Phase 1 will conclude with a pitching competition and 3 companies will progress onto Phase 2 in Dubai (Q1, 2022).

The companies that are selected for Phase 1 will be presented at the Globe Soccer Awards.

Phase 2: Successful companies join a 6-week in-residence program in Dubai in Q1, 2022 where they will execute a proof of concept (PoC) of their proposed solution.

Application deadline

Submission of application | December 1st, 12.00AM GMT+4

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Meet the stakeholders:

Who is UAE Football Association ?

The UAE Football Association (UAE FA) was established in 1971 and is the governing body of association football in the UAE, with the mission of developing and supporting the UAE to achieve international titles.

The UAE FA has recently launched its Vision 2038 strategy which highlights 6 strategic pillars. Pillar 1 of the strategy is “National Teams and Pathways” which seeks to focus on developing elite youth capabilities and improving the national team position in FIFA rankings. Pillar 2 of the strategy is ” Participation” and seeks to increase community/club engagement, the percentage of football participation, playing opportunities, and the number of footballers. One of the key KPIs for this pillar is to increase the number of total registered players from 6,000 to 80,000 by 2025.

This challenge seeks to directly contribute to Pillar 2, which in turn will support the objective of Pillar 1, helping to secure the UAE’s position as a successful footballing country at Asian and International levels.

Who is Sportboost?

Founded by former Real Madrid goalkeeper and Fifa World Cup winner Iker Casillas, Sportboost is an accelerator and incubator for sports-related startups that seek to turn them into leading companies. Sportboost’s specialized program has all the resources to give proper advice, create a strong network, and access financing to boost startup success.