UAE nominee Saeed Abdul Ghaffar has been successfully re-elected as Member of the Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation, ISSF, from 2017-2021.

The decision was announced during the meetings of the 10th General Assembly of the ISSF hosted in Riyadh earlier this week.

In addition, Turki Al Shaikh, Chairman of the General Sports Authority and President of the National Olympic Committee in Saudi Arabia, has been elected uncontested as the President of the ISSF. Al Shaikh announced the provision of 30 million Saudi Riyals in support of the ISSF budget along with the allocation of premises to house the Federation and its affiliated committees in Riyadh.

The GA Meeting was attended by Mohammed bin Darwish, Executive Director of the NOC, as part of the participating UAE delegation. The Assembly discussed the hosting of the 5th Islamic Solidarity Games 2021 in Istanbul and reviewed the financial statements of the ISSF for 2015 and 2017. The meeting also reviewed the plans and programmes of the Federation over the next two years along with the sports development strategy in Islamic countries. The GA meeting is expected to endorse the minutes of the 9th GA along with the Board’s Report for the period 2013-2017 Abdul Ghaffar expressed his delight at his re-election. He stressed that this achievement had to be credited to the support of the NOC under the leadership of H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation.

"His Highness is always keen to see Emiratis taking positions in various sports organisations and authorities. I hope to represent the UAE in the best possible manner in all events," he said.