Long-serving sports administrator and acting Oman Olympic Committee (OOC) chairman, Sheikh Saif al Hosni, on Saturday announced his candidacy for the chief post for the remaining term of the office of the OOC board of directors.
According to a top OOC source, the election for the post of OOC chairman is likely to be held in June with the board to convene a meeting soon to finalize the dates.
Hosni is the incumbent OOC vice-chairman and has been the acting chief since September when Khalid al Zubair tendered his resignation as OOC chairman.
The current board has its term till 2021 and at the ordinary general assembly on Thursday, it was decided that the new OOC elections will be held in the first quarter of 2021.
Hosni, who has served as the vice-chairman of the Oman Football Association in the past, has also been the chairman of the Oman Athletics Association, before being elected to the OOC board as its vice-chairman in 2013, when the first-ever OOC elections were held in the sultanate. Khalid al Zubair was elected as the first elected OOC president.
Hosni was re-elected unopposed as the OOC vice-chairman for another four-year term in 2017 along with Zubair as the chairman before the latter resigned from the post.
Since then, Hosni has been heading the OOC as an interim head and with the elections to be held in near future, he made his intentions clear on Saturday – to take over the reins till the end of the term of this board.
Earlier on Thursday, he presided over the annual general assembly, where the request from Oman School Sports Association to be under the umbrella of the OOC was accepted and recommended for final approval to the board.
The general assembly also approved OOC’s electoral regulations, amendments made to the statutes, and the criteria for nomination of sports personalities to the OOC board.
In his address at the general assembly, Hosni said, “I would like to thank Sheikh Khalid al Zubair for his outstanding services as OOC chairman for nearly six years. We hope to continue the march which we began with him in 2013 to achieve bigger goals in Olympic sports and uphold the spirit of Olympism.
“We wish to continue with our mission of ‘sport for development’ and along with our various sports associations and committees, we hope to achieve our objectives.”
Hosni said that among the major milestones achieved by the OOC last years was the setting up of Oman Olympic Academy to conduct training courses and programmes benefiting sports associations and organisations. “It will serve as a hub for grooming sports leaders and other specialists in all administrative and technical fields,” he said.
By Ashok Purohit
