The Ministry of Sports held the second of the Customer Councils of 2026, dedicated to sports sabbatical services, under the slogan ‘Your Voice Shapes the Future…and Our Services Are Built on Your Aspirations.’ The initiative forms part of the Ministry’s ongoing efforts to advance customer-centric services by fostering direct communication with customers and enabling their active participation in the development of government services. The Council also contributed to the objectives of the Zero Bureaucracy Programme, thereby improving the quality and efficiency of services provided across the sports sector.
The Council brought together representatives from 12 sports federations as well as Ministry officials in charge of several key government services. The participating federations included the UAE Football Association, UAE Basketball Association, UAE Volleyball Association, UAE Table Tennis Association, UAE Triathlon Federation, UAE Archery Federation, UAE Fencing Federation, UAE Rugby Federation, UAE Sports for All Federation, UAE Karate Federation, Emirates Billiard Sports Federation, and UAE Aquatics Federation. The session served as a platform for constructive dialogue, enabling participants to share their views and aspirations for enhancing service efficiency and flexibility, in line with the UAE Government’s commitment to elevating customer experience and advancing government ecosystems.
The Ministry of Sports underscored the importance of Customer Councils as an integral component of its efforts to enhance government services and strengthen partnerships with sports federations. By actively engaging stakeholders and leveraging their insights, feedback, and recommendations, the Ministry is able to identify opportunities for improvement, develop solutions, and design proactive, efficient, and customer-centred services that are closely aligned with the needs of the sports community. The Ministry further emphasised that engaging customers as partners in the service development journey is essential to building more integrated and agile government services.
The Ministry also noted that the Council’s focus on sports sabbatical services aligns with its broader efforts to continuously develop and streamline services that support the sports sector. It underscores the importance of regulating and facilitating access to sports sabbatical, in accordance with the approved provisions of the Sports Sabbatical Guide. These efforts play a vital role in enabling athletes to balance their professional or academic responsibilities with the requirements of training and participation in sporting events and championships. Ultimately, this will help elevate athlete readiness and improve their performance at both regional and international levels.
Through the Customer Councils, the Ministry engaged directly with representatives of sports federations to review recent improvements to sports sabbatical services and gather insights for their continued development, in line with customer needs and expectations. By highlighting the latest updates to the Sports Sabbatical Guide, the session supported stronger coordination between the Ministry and sports federations in developing services and reinforced the importance of collaborative efforts to meet the needs of government sports entities and private-sector organisations.
The Ministry of Sports leverages its Customer Councils as strategic platforms to ensure proactive stakeholder participation in the design and development of government services. This collaborative approach strengthens service quality, improves institutional efficiency, and elevates the overall customer experience, in keeping with the principles of the UAE Government Services Code and the objectives of the Zero Bureaucracy Programme.
