The Secretary-General of the Athletics Federation, Saleh Mohamed Hassan, confirmed that the federation did not formally receive any notification from the General Authority of Sports regarding setting a date for holding the elections of the Board of Directors for the new session 2020/2024.
He told «Emirates Today»: “Up until now, we have not received any official confirmation from the authority about the date of the elections, and it is certain that what will apply to the rest of the sports federations will apply to us as well, and we are fully prepared to implement what the General Sports Authority will assign us, whether by holding elections or Completion of the Board of Directors for its current work ».
Saleh Muhammad Hassan added: "The holding of elections needs 16 weeks from the time the candidacy is opened until the general assembly is convened, and this prompted the Athletics Federation to prepare the new season program, which will officially start next September."
The Secretary General refused to comment on the position of a number of figures affiliated with athletics by announcing his candidacy to run for the Federation elections. He explained: «I do not know the reason behind some of the personalities announcing their intention to run in the Athletics Federation’s elections, this matter they are being asked about, but what I specifically say in this part is that the Federation was not officially notified of the date of the elections. The position of the candidates for the elections and announcing them in advance of their positions before opening the door for candidacy is something that belongs to them.
Regarding his personal stance towards running the Athletics Federation elections, the Secretary General said: “It is not correct for me to talk about my position on the athletics elections, and until now nothing has been formally defined, and when the situation is formally determined, each incident will be recent.”
On the new season and the features of his championship calendar, Saleh Mohamed Hassan explained that the agenda of the new season will be completed next week, and it will be sent to the clubs for review. He continued: If they have some observations on them, they will be taken into consideration without a doubt, as the federation and clubs work together with a joint responsibility to advance the game and push it forward.
He said, "We will take into account in the new agenda the exclusion of tournaments that require the presence of large numbers of players and players in order to preserve their safety, and within the framework of the current policy to implement safety standards and precaution due to the Corona virus, for this it was necessary to exclude some marathons specifically from the agenda of the new season."
On the other hand, regarding the international ties that await the national team in the coming period, Saleh Mohamed Hassan said that "the international championships are currently suspended due to the Corona virus, and the link that awaits the national team in the Gulf Championship last April was postponed indefinitely, due to the Corona pandemic, We were not notified until now of the new date, and we were perfectly prepared for this championship, which was prepared in a distinctive way as it represents a good friction before the Olympics, which was also postponed for the next year ».
The Secretary General of the Federation of Forces praised the "attitude of the Sharjah club management by giving their Bulgarian coach Vasco the full-time mission to prepare the national team for the Gulf Championship, stressing that this position is not alien to Sharjah Club, which is one of the important castles in the UAE sport in general and athletics in particular."
• The agenda for the new athletics season will be completed next week.