Many young people love soccer, but they don’t always have access to safe places to play coaching. In collaboration with local partners throughout the US, Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba and the UAE Embassy in Washington, DC, have built 14 all-weather soccer fields and provide free coaching for youth in underserved communities. These fields give young people a safe place to stay active, develop teamwork and leadership skills and improve their game.
This field at Conestoga Park is more than a gift of infrastructure. It is an expression of the values we share: that sport builds character and that children deserve safe spaces to grow. The friendship between the UAE and the United States is best measured in what we build together,” Ambassador Al Otaiba said on the opening of the Conestoga Park Soccer Field in Philadelphia, PA. The Conestoga Park field is part of a growing UAE-US partnership that now includes a landmark collaboration with Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) to bring cutting-edge gene therapies to children with rare diseases.
Thousands of children have benefitted from soccer fields that have been constructed in Boston, Harlem, Brooklyn, and the Bronx (New York City), Miami, East Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC, Dallas, Cleveland, Atlantic City, Asbury Park and Philadelphia.
UAE soccer teams also have contributed to the program by providing training opportunities for local youth. During the UAE women’s national soccer team visit to the US, coaches and players hosted free clinics in partnership with local soccer organizations in Philadelphia and Washington, DC.
