The General Assembly of the Football Association decided during the emergency meeting held yesterday at the InterContinental Festival City in Dubai, to form a transitional committee to manage the Football Association headed by Sheikh Rashid bin Humaid Al Nuaimi, following the resignation of the former Federation Board of Directors headed by Marwan bin Ghalita before the end of its legal session in 2020, as the formation of the transitional committee that will manage the affairs of the Union until the election of a new board of directors for the 2020-2024 electoral cycle, in implementation of Article 151 of the Articles of Association of the Football Association.

The transitional committee included 10 members: the President of the Emirates Professional Association, Abdullah Al-Junaibi, Vice-Chairman of the Committee, Hisham Al-Zarouni, Ghanem Al-Hajri, Ali Hamad, Amal Buslakh, Aisha Al-Tunaiji, Khalfan Balhoul, Issa Mir, Ahmed Darwish and Hamid Al-Tayer.

The transitional committee included three of the members of the resigning Football Association, namely: Vice President Abdullah Al-Junaibi, Hisham Al-Zarouni, and Amal Bushalakh.

The General Assembly meeting was chaired by the oldest member, and he is a member of the Board of Directors of Al-Ahly Youth Club Ibrahim Abdul-Malik, according to Article 151 of the Articles of Association of the Football Association, which stipulates that in the event of the resignation of the Football Association Board of Directors, the oldest member represented at the General Assembly will preside over the General Assembly.

At the beginning of the session, the Secretary General of the Football Association, Muhammad Bin Hazam, called on the attendees to reveal the members of the Federation’s Board of Directors who resigned, namely: Chairman of the Board Marwan bin Ghalita, and the members: Rashid Al Zaabi, Muhammad Obaid Al Yamahi, Khalifa Al Ghafli, Hassan Abdel Wahab, and Muslim Al Kathiri , Muhammad Mubarak Al-Hajri, and Saeed Al Tunaiji.

The meeting of the General Assembly was attended by representatives of 30 clubs out of 31, while the representative of only one club, Al Dhafra, was absent. The General Assembly also set the duration of the transitional committee's work as 90 days, extendable to the same 90 days.

It is expected that the Transitional Committee of the Football Association will hold its first meeting in the next few period, to distribute tasks and portfolios in preparation for the start of a new stage, especially in terms of preparing the national teams for their upcoming entitlements, especially the national team that is preparing to play its matches in the remaining rounds in the joint qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup and Cup Asia 2023.

The transitional committee will call for a general assembly to elect two committees, one to oversee the election of a new board of directors, and another to appeal the upcoming electoral process.

For his part, Secretary General of the Football Association, Muhammad Hazam Al-Dhaheri, confirmed that the Chairman and members of the Transitional Committee were unanimously chosen by representatives of the 30 clubs who attended the General Assembly.

Bin Hazam told «Emirates Today»: «The transitional committee will hold its first meeting as soon as possible, in order to distribute administrative tasks and portfolios among members, and the meeting of the general assembly was held smoothly to complete the specific tasks according to the agenda.»

For his part, Al-Ahly Youth Club board member Ibrahim Abdul-Malik thanked the members of the General Assembly for their confidence in him to chair the meeting of the association, noting that the former Football Association became resigned after eight of its members, including the Chairman of the Board of Directors, submitted their resignations.

And Abdul-Malik stressed that the next stage has great challenges before the transitional committee, especially at the level of national teams, especially the first team.

Representatives of the media were allowed to attend the first quarter of an hour of the General Assembly.