The Council of Umm Al-Qura University (UQU) approved a Ph.D. program in sports management at the Department of Physical Education, College of Education. The program is the first of its kind to grant a Ph.D. degree in this specialty. His Excellency Dr. Ali bin Mosleh Al-Matrafi, Dean of the College, stated that the program contains a set of areas that serve, in their entirety, the present and future objectives of the sports system in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, such as sports investment; privatization; sports professionalism; human resource management in the field of sports; sports marketing and media. He added that the outputs of this scientific program will be one of the biggest and most significant sources of support in the field of sports for the next phase in light of the Saudi Vision 2030 – God willing.  

On the other hand, Dr. Yusuf Al-Thubaiti, Head of the Department of Physical Education, pointed out that the approval by UQU of the Ph.D. program in sports management comes as a natural development of the leadership role in this specialty that was initiated by the Department of Physical Education at the College of Education in the academic year 1430 AH with the start of the master’s degree stage in the same specialty, to create a first program in the GCC countries. 

The approval of this program comes as a continuation of the Department’s distinction and leadership, as the Department, which was established in 1396 AH, is considered the first at the level of the GCC countries.