MAG_AP_Q2-2017_V6

ACCESS POINT MAGAZINE - JULY 2017 - ISSUE # 003
HEAD OF THE FIRST SOCCER
TOURNAMENT COMMITTEE SHARES HIS
EXPERIENCE
How was the Soccer Tournament Initiated?
Ali & Sons continuously looks for new ways to
support its people through a variety of health
and wellness initiatives. This Soccer Tournament
was a derivative initiated by the head office and
mainly Mr. Shamis’ request. We were looking for
a sport activity that is liked and played by most
employees to ensure their engagement is at the
highest level. Soccer was evident as the most
popular of all other activities.
When you started working on the plan for
the soccer tournament, how did you decide
on executing it?
From my past experience in organizing such
tournaments. And we figured that employees
from all background of nationalities could
participate in such a globally recognized and
loved the sport.
Did you find any difficulties in executing and
organizing the event?
Normally to get people to work together in
order for a good idea to come to fruition can be
difficult. That’s why at the time I proposed to have
a committee that is made of members, each from
a different business unit. That’s how we ended
up with 20 members in that committee. Most of
them were very effective and very enthusiastic
about their participation in the event, but each
was able to place their input according to their
level of experience and know-how. In the end,
it’s all about generating the team spirit from
committee level to the players and ending with
the spectators
you’ve clarified the difficluties from the
planning perspective, but what about
challenges during the event. Did you
encounter any?
Logistically, it was a bit difficult to keep track of
many deliverables. For example, scheduling was
an issue for us. We had to consider that timing can
make or break the whole event, for the players as
well as the spectators and soccer enthusiasts. We
had some teams coming all the way from Al-Ain.
We had to coordinate the timing between teams
and which would play with which team, in order
35 for the games to go smoothly without many
delays. Some games had to start at 8pm,
where in better geographical circumstances we
could have started as early as 5pm or 6pm.
Name some of the highlights of the event
from your own perspective?
The tournament itself was a great idea. It
brought people together, in one common place
for a common goal. To have fun and to achieve
a goal! But also, you must consider that this is
probably one of the very few times where we
were able to have people coming from different
business units gathered in one place for the
same reason, but they never met each other
and known one another if it hadn’t been for
the tournament. Moreover, the sportsmanship
of all the players was a great achievement for
us at that time.
I was particularly surprised with the execution
of the inauguration ceremony of the event
where we had all the teams gather and line
up for group photos. We had 12 teams. Most
showed up and the playground field was pretty
colorful at that time.
The closing ceremony and final game were the
ultimate fun for spectators as well as players.
Spirits were very high and people were truly
engaged in the details for the game. You can
even see that in the postings of the live feeds
of the event through Instagram. How everyone
was tuned in to know the results. The best
part was the end of the final match when
the referee blew the whistle and spectators
took their victory to a much higher level of
celebrations.
Do you have future plans for such events
you would like to update us on?
Well, we have made a commitment to repeat
this tournament at least once a year. Hence
the title “the First Soccer tournament”, so we
are hoping this will be a sustainable activity
for everyone to enjoy. We have conducted an
after games committee meeting, in order for
us to capture all insight on how this event can
become even a better success when organized
next year. We hope we can have many of these
recreational activates that can take us out of
the office work environment, and bring us