Arab Motorcycle Federation Formerly Elects New Executive Committee

Dubai, UAE, 20 January, 2013:  Dr. Mohammed Ben Sulayem said today that the newly formed executive committee of the Arab Motorcycle Federation (AMF) is ideally poised to take competitive bike racing in the Middle East to a new level.

Sulayem, President of the Automobile and Touring Club of the UAE (ATCUAE), said the committee, which was formerly elected during a meeting at the AMF’s new Riyadh headquarters in Saudi can now move toward overseeing a calendar of moto racing events run to the international standards laid down by the FIM, the sport’s world governing body.

The AMF will be headed by its new President, His Highness Prince Sultan bin Bandar Al Faisal, with the new executive committee elected under the presence and supervision of the Union of Arab National Olympic Committees (UANOC).

Mahir Badri, CEO of the ATCUAE is among the elected committee, joining Omar Zaarour, Executive Director of the Royal Motorcycle Club of Jordan, and Essa Alawadhi, Member of Bahrain Motorcycle Federation.

Other members are Sultan Almeraikhi, member of Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation, Adel Abdelbaqi, President of the Automobile Touring Club of Egypt, and Khalid Qadurra, President of the Palestinian Motorcycle and Motorsport Federation.

“The newly formed executive committee is the latest development in the shake up of the AMF in August last year following many irregularities that were present in the federation,” said Sulayem, who attended the meeting, along with H.R.H. Prince Nawaf Bin Faisal Bin Fahd Bin Abdulaziz, President of UANOC.

“We now have an experienced and diligent management team that will lay the platform to ensure competitive motor cycling and motocross events in the Middle East will increasingly become more successful and popular in the future.”

The first officially elected executive committee of the AMF is the latest development in the federation after a major overhaul in August 2012, a process driven by the UANOC to ensure that motorcycle racing in the Middle East operates in a consistent and professional manner.

Once elected, the executive committee of AMF immediately ratified the statue that all future members of the federation will be restricted to motor cycle bodies officially recognised by the FIM.

The tenure of the new AMF executive committee will run through to 2016, as they look to build on the success of the first round of the ATCUAE organised Arab Motocross Championship, which took place in Dubai for the first time in November 2012, and was won by Emirati Mohammed Al Balooshi.

The Arab Motocross Championship was the first competitive racing series of the AMF following its overhaul in 2012, and was soon followed by the second round in Bahrain and third round in Qatar.

The AMF executive committee will next meet to move forward with plans to develop a moto sport calendar of events that runs in compliance with FIM regulations to guarantee the highest standard of competitive racing and ensure the safety of competitors, spectators, and all those involved.