I agree. We are not getting the full story and Collier is right in digging before taking any action. I know our administration has been very poor, but I find it hard to believe the RLEF or RLIF would ratify a member, in this case an observer member, without some sort of local official status as an association at least. I wouldn't be surprised if they had this but didn't obtain the necessary permission to play on a national level (I'm not even sure they really have outside the MENA thingo).
The whole thing about uaerugbyunion being the sole body for all rugby is clearly ficticious and being made up and adapted on the run to prevent league running it's concurrent competition. There is nothing in their constitution about this, it seems to have been invented on the spot. League has been played in the UAE since 2007 and no one said a thing until now. Here is a likely timeline:
- league launches its 4 team competition with sponsorship and media recognition
- towards end of competition, uaerugby panics, makes claim for sole ownership of everything rugby, warns Mokdad to stop using rugby name or claiming to represent UAE.
- Mokdad attempts amical resolution, drops rugby and UAE from the name of commission and banners etc. so that they can continue playing and terminate competition meeting sponsor requirements etc
- not enough from uaerugby, they want the comp stopped, get Mokdad arrested. from what I have read in the arabic language news, the media report it as Mokdad acting as the "false" or "fraudulent head of uae rugby" when everyone knows this is clearly false and not what Mokdad is trying to do or even remotely appearing to do.
- uaerugby probably start getting calls from the RLEF, RLIF, possibly WorldRugby and so start scrambling for justifications of there actions. today we learn Mokdad is living in the UAE illegally. god knows if this is true, it could possibly be fabricated. how would uaerugby be privy to this information and be able to go spouting on about it in a media release? just odd, very unprofessional. they also have a swipe at the RLEF and RLIF, also pathetic.
- all the while, UAETouch (rugby) upon the initial warnings from UAERugby, quickly rebranded to Desert Touch or something to comply with the uaerugby degree, but have since reverted to UAETouch, despite them not having an officially UAE recognised sport federation or coming under the uaerugby banner. We see they have been recently visited and endorsed on twitter by Brett Gosper, WorldRugby boss. So nothing has happened or will happen to them, which is a dead give away as to the real motivation behind the whole saga.
This whole thing is extremely similar to what happened to league in New Caledonia, the only difference being no one got thrown into jail.
As I have said before, getting rid of "rugby" is not the solution. SportAccord will hopefully come soon, and these countries will have to be sorted out one by one.
Qais A. Al Dhalai ‏@QaisUAE
