Hasan Chikh (c) and Omar Al-Hai (r) chairing the meeting of the Arab Federation
Today, July 3rd, the 22 member-countries of the Arab University Sports Federation met in the Athletes’ Village taking advantage of the fact that all its members sent delegations to the Summer Universiade in Belgrade. The delegates discussed the schedule of the competitions in order not to let them interfere with any FISU sporting events. The meeting was chaired by Hasan Chikh, FISU Vice-President, FASU President and Vice-President of the Arab Federation and Omar Al-Hai, FISU Assessor, AUSF Vice-President and Secretary-General of the Arab Federation. ‘This is the very first time all Arab countries are present at the Universiade’, Omar Al-Hai, told FISU Media. ‘They are very proud to be here and are sending bigger delegations to the FISU events.’
The Arab University Sports Federation counts 22 members. However, some of these countries are not a member of FISU. ‘One of our responsibilities – Mr. Chick and me, being FISU Assessors – is to help these countries to set up a national university sport federation. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrein and Oman don’t have such a federation’, Mr. Al-Hai stated. ‘But thanks to our encouragement these countries are working to set up a NUSF soon and membership of AUSF and FISU is imminent.’
FISU Media had the chance to talk to the Head of Delegation of Saudi Arabia, Prof. Waleed A. Aldali, Director General of Private Higher Education in Saudi Arabia. We asked Mr. Aldali the importance for the University Sport Movement in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to become a FISU member. ‘We are now in the process of finalizing the creation of our University Sport Federation because we want to be with the world and encourage our students to participate in sport and cultural activities’, Mr. Aldali explained. ‘University Sport is becoming more popular in the Kingdom as Saudi Arabia has 20 government universities, 20 private colleges and 7 private universities’, the Chef de Mission added. Saudi athletes at the Belgrade Universiade will be competing in tennis, taekwondo, judo, swimming, archery, athletics and table tennis.
The Officials of the Saudi Delegation together with FISU President Killian
President Killian receives a gift from Mr. Aldali, the Chef de Mission of the Saudi Delegation
President Killian being interviewed by Saudi Television
To stress the earnest of their commitment to become a member of FISU, the officials of the Saudi delegation met with FISU President Killian later on today and discussed a number of University Sport issues with him. Mr. Killian also was interviewed by the most important Sport TV Channel of the Kingdom.
FISU Media asked President Killian about the importance for FISU to have membership expansion in the Gulf area. ‘This is prove that we are really doing what we are saying to keep doing’, Mr. Killian stressed. ‘That is extending our hand to everybody in the world, particularly in that region. Once the Saudis become a FISU member, they might as well become one of the biggest delegations in the Universiade. They might even become hosts of some of our events. The Forum we had in Abu Dhabi opened up the region and this shows we’re on the right track’, the FISU President concluded.