In the first part of Sport Industry Insider‘s wide-ranging interview with Saeed Hareb, the Dubai Sports Council Secretary General explains why Dubai looks set to remain a hub for sporting investment and how the Dubai Fitness Challenge is set to return bigger and better in 2018.

Where should businesses looking to invest in Dubai’s sports sector focus their efforts?

Today if you are aware of 30×30 [Dubai Fitness Challenge] which we had in 2017, you can see the engagement across different sports. I think people should go and check the sheer people involved. It’s a good programme – that’s the vision of Sheikh Hamdan. He did one month for 30 minutes a day but if you count the number of sports, either individual or together, the people can find more. On the fitness side or if they want to do other sports they can do it. There is planning now for 2018 and in April we will announce the full programme for the 2018 Dubai Fitness Challenge.

Any messages for businesses looking at sport in Dubai?

For people who invest or make business in Dubai, or the UAE in general, the infrastructure and the platform is there. So I advise them to go for it.