RIYADH, 8 November — Prince Nawaf ibn Faisal and Dr. Saleh ibn Nasser with a delegation from the General Presidency of Youth Welfare, met on Friday with senior British government and sporting officials in London.
The gathering was the 12th Saudi-British joint meeting and took place under the auspices of the Sporting Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries that the global company BAE Systems help to implement. The meeting reviewed the success of the program over the past year as well as planning for the year ahead. Regular meetings have been taking place since the Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the two countries in 1987 with the aim of cementing Saudi-British relations.
Peter Waddell, who directs the Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of BAE Systems commented that “The forthcoming schedule is very encouraging and has been designed to build upon the tremendous success that this sporting arrangement already has achieved. It will still be a broad based program and will appeal to everyone, no matter what their sporting interest.
“The Saudization of professional posts in Saudi sport is set to continue with the help of programs such as MSc courses in sports medicine, physiotherapy and nutrition continuing. This will help to build up the sporting backbone of Saudi Arabia,” added Peter Waddell.
“Last year 58 activities took place that have helped to benefit the leading sports professionals, the sporting infrastructure, officials, coaches, sports scientists, schoolchildren and even special needs sport in the two countries.”
Events that took place in last year’s program included basketball coaching, volleyball matches and coaching, bicycle races, coaching workshops, special needs training camps for fencing and table tennis. There were also cultural visits to the UK, media exchanges for journalists as well as cooperation between the Olympic Associations to discuss the best way to prepare for 2004.
“The most rewarding part of the program is the way in which it helps to develop a greater cross-cultural understanding between the younger generations. This proves the power of sport in the world today which can help us to bridge any differences,” Peter enthused.
