Best Leagues, Competitions for School Sports in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, UAE

National Schools League – Sport 360

Sport 360, a Dubai-based publication founded in 2010, is a leading sports information and news provider in the Middle East. With its daily newspaper and on-line service, it aims to reach out to all sports fans in the UAE.

In 2014, Sport 360 joined with its main sponsor ADIB (Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank) to establish the National Schools League for Cricket, with Emirates Islamic Bank joining to sponsor Football in 2015 and the publication itself sponsoring Basketball, which was only offered for one season. Rugby seems likely to be the next sport to follow.

Although the Basketball league ran only for one season, 16 teams participated at Under-14 and 18 were involved in the Under-16 competition. A broad mix of schools from the emirates of Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah were involved, with diverse students from the Philippines, IB, Indian, Pakistan and UK curriculum schools.

In the Under-14 finals, the The Indian High School Hoopstars beat the International School of Choueifat Abu Dhabi, whilst in the Under-16 finals, VISS Sharjah overcame the New Filipino Private School.  Unfortunately, the passion for Basketball was evidently not sufficient to continue with this sport as part of the League.

The popularity of cricket, though, continues to grow. In the third season, 63  teams from 43 schools participated with 960 children registered. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the nationalities of the children broke down as follows:  59% Indian, 21% Pakistani, 13% Western, with 7% from other countries.

The age groups offered were Under 12, Under 14 and Under 17 (boys only). The Under 12 indoor development league was introduced and was a great success with 6 new schools entering this age group.

A total of 125 games were played in total with Sharjah-based Our Own English High School Zenith squad, who had already won the Under-15 title in 2015/16, taking a clean sweep with the U-12, U-14 and U-17 crowns in 2016/17. Their opponent, Delhi Private School Sharjah, also put up a strong fight.

Having just completed the second season of Football (2016/17), the statistics are impressive.  94 teams from 55 schools and 1410 children participated in 260 games.

The matches were open to Under 12, Under 14 and Under 16 (boys only) – the Under 12 development league was introduced in 2016/17 and attracted 10 new schools. Matches were played around the UAE and schools were geographically split into groups with specific Al Ain and Fujairah groups introduced for the 2016/17 league.

Matches were played in the Group stage format with a knockout final series.  The winner of the U-12 competition was Dubai English Speaking College (DESC) whilst the French Lycée Francais International Georges Pompidou won both the Under-14 (against Al Ain Juniors) and Under-16 GEMS Wellington International School) trophies.

The top 35 players from the league were invited to a Dubai based training camp run by French Ligue 1 side Stade Rennais F.C. From this camp the top selected 8 players were invited for an all-expenses paid trip to France to train at the Stade Rennais academy and watch a Ligue 1 home game.

The winning students were James Aubrey (Dubai English Speaking College), Luis Dunn (Dubai English Speaking College), Adria Anglada (Dubai International Academy), Mohammed Shafiq Taj (New Model Indian School), Abdul Haidi (Abu Dhabi Indian School), Tony Paul (Our Own English High School), Laurent Al Hallal (LFI Georges Pompidou) and Luis Perez (LFI Georges Pompidou).

Index
Abu Dhabi School Sports Association
British Schools of the Middle East
Dubai Affiliated School Sport Association
Dubai Little League
Emirates Athletic Conference
Junior Emirates Athletic Conference
Middle East South Asia Conference (MESAC)
Near East Schools Activities Conference (NESAC)
SchoolsSports
duFC School’s Cup
Sport 360 National Schools League
UAE Xchange Abu Dhabi Schools League

ALSO SEE: The best schools in the UAE for Sport