Best Leagues, Competitions for School Sports in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, UAE
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The UAE’s Telecoms provider, du, became involved in Schools Cup football in 2015/16 when the inaugural duFC School’s Cup took place. du Football Champions, featuring the UAE Schools Cup, Streets Cups, and Girls’ Challenge is described as the home of youth football in the UAE, offering a professional scouting platform with La Liga to develop the male and female football champions of tomorrow.
The competition is quite unique in that it brings together schools of all curricula, public and private. Other options exist for individuals to form or register their own (non-school) teams through the Streets Cup and for girls to participate, either through their school teams or external clubs.
Open to all public and private schools in the UAE, and with free participation, the Schools Cup, open to boys aged 11-16, brought together over 5,000 students from across the UAE in its first season, providing them with a unique opportunity to nurture their passion for football and reward their playing skills. This number grew to over 7,000 in 2016/17.
The UAE Girls Challenge is open to all girls upto the age of 18. Open to all public and private schools, as well as Girls’ clubs in the UAE, the event brought together over 500 girls providing them with a unique opportunity to nurture their passion for football and reward their playing skills.
Players also got the opportunity to be discovered by ex-Real Madrid player, Michel Salgado and to train with the La Liga High Performance Centre, based at the Sevens stadium in Dubai.
Schools and Girls’ Clubs played in a series of group stage matches across the Northern Emirates, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Dubai with the best 3 teams from each regional knock-out competition going through to the next stage. Thereafter, 8 teams qualified in each league for the final stages of the competition.
In the Under-16 competition, the 8 schools that made it through to the quarter finals were Rashid bin Saeed School, Hatta, British School of Al Khubairat, Dubai English Speaking College, Al Khazna School, Al Ain, Al Zuhoor School, Sharjah, Al Shafie School, The International School of Choueifat, Sharjah and the National Charity School, Sharjah.
In the Under-14 competition, Al Mawakeb Garhoud, Al Ma’arifa School, Sharjah, The International School of Choueifat, Dubai, The International Academic School, Abu Dhabi, The International Community School, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah American International School, Al Shawari School, Abu Dhabi and Al Manara School, Baniyas competed for the trophy.
Al Mawakeb School, Garhoud overcame Al Maarifa School Sharjah in the Under 16 competition, whilst Government School Rashed Bin Saeed from Hatta ousted BSAK – the British School of Al Khubairat, Abu Dhabi – competing in the Under-14 final. Whilst BSAK regularly appears on the list of strong participants across leagues, the other 3 schools who made the Finals have not featured elsewhere. Subsequently, BSAK has arranged Friendly matched with its Hatta-based opponents.
In the Girls’s Challenge, 3 of the 8 quarter-finalists were schools with teams from BSAK, Al Shifaa and Al Ma’arifa School. The winners were two Sports Clubs with girls from a number of schools teamed together.
What is clear from the participants is that this competition opens up the possibility for schools that do not take part in the long-standing school leagues (possibly on cost grounds), to get involved at the grass-roots level.
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
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