He called for the provision of sufficient budgets to prepare the teams at all age levels

Al Gergawi: The future of the Emirati basketball and “team games” is in danger

• From the meeting of the youth team and Kuwait in the Gulf Championship.

  Photography: Patrick Castillo

• Ismail Al Gergawi: “The clubs’ preference for their personal interests is another negative factor that the teams pay taxes for.”

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The head of the UAE and Arab Basketball Federations, Major General Ismail Al Gergawi, said that the early farewell to the national youth team from the preliminary round in the championship of the Gulf teams for the age group (under 18 years), which was closed the day before yesterday in Dubai, and crowned the Qatari team title after its victory in The final against his Saudi counterpart (75-51), confirms that “the future of the Emirati basketball and the rest of the team games are in danger.”

Al Gergawi told "Emirates Today": "The youth team is the product of an integrated work system for Emirati sport, as this group of players is the product of clubs, and reveals the amount of work or support it gives to the future of the game and its age stages, in light of the bulk of its limited budgets going. To conclude deals and contracts with foreign coaches and professionals for first-class teams, and to allocate the remainder of these budgets to find cheap contracts with coaches of the age groups who focus primarily on maintaining their seat, and searching only for winning local championships.

He added: "The entire sports system bears the responsibility of bidding farewell to the youth team from the preliminary round of the Gulf championship, in light of the weak budgets allocated to the Federation of the Game, which was unable to provide external camps for this group of players, and only timid preparation days before the start of the tournament."

He explained: "A simple review reveals that the future of all team games or the so-called (martyr games) is in danger, in light of the federations' lack of the required budgets capable of providing adequate preparation for the teams in all their age stages, especially since the bulk of the budgets of basketball teams go to the benefit of my team. The men and women who were crowned last May with the gold medals of the Gulf Games in Kuwait, which are also the fruit of the joint effort of the clubs and the federation.”

Al Gergawi pointed out that the situation is worrying and the pressures experienced by the “martyr games” threaten their future. He said: “The Basketball Federation is like the hand and volleyball federations and even the individual games, and all of them ask the General Sports Authority to increase the budgets allocated to them, in order to ensure the appropriate preparation of the teams at all stages, as well as That all of these teams do not have a hall qualified for adequate preparation, as the team games teams and their technical equipment, unfortunately, depend on the “Salah al-Din” hall in Dubai, which is not suitable for the specifications that allow providing the minimum requirements for preparation, both in terms of its shabby floor, which is constantly drained from the federations. Budgets to restore it, or even the dilapidated “board” of the basketball, which put the Game Association, days before the start of the Gulf championship, under pressure to provide an alternative hall for training, and wait for a response from the clubs, especially in Dubai, and I thank here the Al-Nasr and Al-Wasl clubs, who bore this burden at the expense of The time allotted for the stages of preparing its teams for the new season.

He continued: “Also, the absence of the principle of accountability from the sports councils of the clubs to which they belong, is another reason for the situation reached by the teams of the age groups, as the presence of permanent control over the mechanisms of the clubs’ work, and the quality of the coaches supervising the teams of the age groups, contributes to upgrading the existing talents. However, the absence of oversight made the coaches of the club teams focus only on the results that ensure their continuity of work, without caring even about teaching the players the basics of the game that allow them when joining the team to make the task of the technical staff of the teams able to employ these talents as required, and this is what made The youth team in the Gulf championship pays its tax, as its players lack successful scoring rates, especially from free throws, which are one of the first basics of the game, and one of its negative results was the loss of “Al-Abyad” for its decisive match against Kuwait at the conclusion of the preliminary round by two points with a result (37-39). and the inability to qualify for the semi-finals.

He concluded:

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