UAE Chess Federation's New Initiative Includes Resident Members On Board Of Directors For Enhanced Governance

The UAE Chess Federation's recent extraordinary general assembly meeting marked a significant milestone by adopting the 'List System' for the 2025–2028 Board of Directors electoral term. This decision aligns with the Sports Law and allows up to 30 per cent representation of resident members on the Board. This change represents a shift in how sports federation boards are formed, promoting inclusivity in decision-making.

The Ministry of Sports views this initiative as a historic step in enhancing sports governance in the UAE. By incorporating resident members, the federation aims to harness diverse expertise and talents, reinforcing sports as a tool for national development and social integration. This move also aligns with the UAE's leadership vision of involving all societal segments in governance.

The Ministry emphasises that governance is not just regulatory but a comprehensive approach to building stronger partnerships with sports institutions. It fosters collaboration and empowers these entities to identify talent, increase active participation, and improve performance efficiency. The Ministry supports federations beyond financial aid by developing effective administrative models and offering innovation tools.

This initiative highlights the Ministry’s commitment to instilling a robust governance culture within the sports sector. The adoption of the electoral list system marks an organisational advancement, reinforcing integrity, transparency, and administrative integration principles among sports bodies.

The new system will serve as a pilot model to assess its institutional and technical impact on the federation’s performance. The evaluation will focus on decision-making efficiency, diversity of expertise, speed of initiative implementation, and internal governance effectiveness. A comprehensive analysis will shape future policies for board formation mechanisms across other federations.

Depending on achieving intended objectives, this approach may be gradually generalised across other federations. It aligns with professionalism, sustainability, and inclusivity principles within the sports sector. The Ministry considers this inclusion as embodying openness, tolerance, and diversity values.

Integrating Expertise for Excellence

The experience underscores integrating elite talents into sports leadership roles in areas like marketing, strategic planning, technical analysis, and modern technology adoption. Involving members with advanced expertise serves as an institutional enabler for achieving performance excellence. This step aligns with developing qualified professionals capable of transforming federations into pioneering institutions.

The Ministry believes that involving members with advanced expertise serves as an institutional enabler for achieving performance excellence. This step aligns with its vision to develop the administrative structure of sports federations and instate qualified professionals capable of transforming these entities into pioneering institutions characterised by responsible decision-making, agility, and innovation.

This initiative highlights efforts to instil a robust governance culture as the guiding framework for all institutional processes within the sports sector. Moreover, adopting the electoral list system is considered a significant organisational advancement, reinforcing sports bodies' commitment to integrity, transparency, specialisation, and administrative integration principles.

With inputs from WAM