The Secretary General of the award, Moaza Al Marri, invited individual athletes, teams and corporations from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Arab world and worldwide to submit their nominations for the honour.

Al Marri confirmed that this year’s edition of the world will focus on the best initiatives, project or programmes that applied creative works in empowerment of women in sport.

The entrants must be from work which took place between September 21 in 2016 to August 31, 2017.

“This Award is derived from the notion & vision of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the vice president and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, who always creates better future through his distinctive initiatives,” said Al Marri.

“Thanks to the support and directives of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai, chairman of Dubai Sports Council and patron of the award, and to the wise leadership of H.H. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the chairman of the award and President of the UAE National Olympic Committee, the award has attained several prestigious achievements during the last eight editions.

“The Board of Trustees, chaired by H.E. Mater Al Tayer, has fixed successful directives as a method of work for the Award to achieve the promising development in the sports sector in UAE, Arab World and worldwide.

“The last editions of the Award were joined by 1,538 participants; among whom were 402 locals, 961 Arabs and 175 participants from other world countries.

“Total number of winners during the last eight editions were 178 winners; classified as following: 85 locals, 81 Arabs besides 12 winners from other world countries.”

Al Marri confirmed the details of this year’s edition of the award, following a meeting with media representatives at Dubai Sport Council’s premises in Dubai Design District.

The meeting was held in the presence of Nasser Aman Al Rahma, the award’s director, and other members of the Secretariat General of the award.

Prizes will be awarded in the Individual Sports Creativity, Team Sports Creativity and Corporate Sports Creativity categories while the international participation is limited to the latter. 

The Corporate Sports Creativity category comprises of International Federations, which will present their distinctive initiatives to support woman sport and motivate women to serve in the sports sector.

Local awards will be given to athletes from the UAE, while the Arab level will be allocated for athletes from all Arab countries.

The deadline for applications will be August 31, with entrants encouraged to apply at www.mbrawards.ae.

Refereeing will be carried out through the award’s electronic smart refereeing system from October, with winners then announced on November 27.

The final awarding ceremony is due to take place on January 10, 2018.

Al Rahma has confirmed the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) will be taking part in the award and the director expressed his hope more international federations will follow.

“We will arrange further meetings with several regional & international sports organisations,” he said.

“Invitations will be extended to all those who will participate in the upcoming SportAccord Convention, where special zone will be held for the award to meet with official persons and representatives of participating Arab and international sports federations.

“We will also arrange visits to our national sports entities to explain the new details of nominations, theme of the competition and mechanisms of submitting nomination files.”