Registration for the 11th edition of the award has now opened and is due to close on August 31 next year.  

The award is organised under the patronage of HH Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and chairman of Dubai Sports Council (DSC).

Teams and organisations from across the UAE and Arab world, as well as from across the globe, have been invited to send in their nominations. 

The eligibility period for organisations is from September 1 last year to the closing date.

Details of the 11th edition of the award were announced during a meeting held by Moaza AlMarri, secretary general of the award.

"We are extremely proud of the valuable work achieved in the past decade, during which we have honored as many as 230 leading figures, creative individual athletes and innovative groups and corporates from around the world," AlMarri said.

"This is aligned with the Award’s vision and objectives, which aims to promote the sports sector by supporting creative achievements and honoring innovators in all areas of sports-related work. 

"The award is also an accolade to recognise efforts exerted by distinguished and innovative figures to develop the work of sports institutions at the local, Arab and global level and to promote competitiveness."

With the UAE celebrating 2019 as the year of tolerance, the Award has the theme of "tolerance in sport".

"The Award honors the best projects, programs and initiatives that apply creative work in the empowerment of societies through the values of tolerance and knowledge management or any other area approved by the Award’s Board of Trustees," AlMarri continued. 

"The Award aims to encourage local, Arab and international sports institutions to launch and implement initiatives that achieve positive results within the important theme chosen annually. 

"This theme complements the achievements made in the previous editions of the award, which focused on ‘governance in sports’, ‘empowerment of women in sports’ and ‘empowerment of youth in the sports field."

Director of the award, Nasser AlRahma, was also in attendance at the meeting and stressed their keenness to communicate and cooperate with local, Arab and international media organisations to help achieve the award’s desired objectives of developing the sports sector and increasing sports achievements in all fields.

"Local, Arab and international media organisations play a valuable role, which is not limited to reporting news about the award and its achievements," he said. 

"We regard them as our fundamental partners in spreading the mission and vision of the award and conveying its message to the sports sector, while supporting the award in promoting the culture of creativity in sports work. 

"Accordingly, we are keen to arrange regular meetings with media representatives ahead of launching a new edition of the award, and to communicate with them all year long."

Winners of the award are scheduled to be selected in October 2020 and announced on November 27 of that year.