When it was announced earlier this year three NFL teams had been granted the marketing rights to promote American football in the UAE, Dustin Cherniawski said he had his fingers crossed who was going to call first.
The former professional player from Canada had been running the country’s own start up competition since 2011.
Initially, he had moved to Dubai, having just won the Canadian Football League with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, in the search of something new.
“I decided to call it a career and go someplace exciting, so I ended up in the UAE,” Cherniawski said.
“I wanted to get as far away from football as possible. I’d studied finance and commercial real estate, and I thought: Dubai's the place for me.”
In search of a sporting fix of some description when he arrived, he went looking for a rugby club. Instead, he happened upon an advert for American football players in the newspaper, and an invitation to join a training session in Safa Park.
“To be honest, it wasn’t good,” he said of Day Dot for the sport in the Emirates. “I said, ‘Alright, I'll bring a whistle and some cones, and I'll coach you guys up’.”
The 12 originals from the park soon became 60. In 2011 he founded the Emirates American Football League, and at the end of the first season there were 180 players. By the fourth season, there were 460, playing over 100 games of tackle football per season.
They then launched flag football – the non-contact version of American football – after Covid, and involvement has doubled almost every season in the time since. There are now 14 flag football teams across Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
And, as of this year, they now have an official affiliation with the San Francisco 49ers.
NFL sides have to bid to the league for the rights to market the game in new territories. The 49ers are already prominent in Mexico and the UK, where their association with Premier League football team Leeds United – they have the same owners - has helped expand their network fast.
As of April 1, the NFL’s Global Market Programme assigned the rights to the UAE to them, along with the LA Rams and Washington Commanders.
“We had our fingers crossed for one in particular, and sure enough, the phone rang,” Cherniawski said. “They said, ‘We’d love to come on out to the Middle East'.”
The reason he was so thrilled the 49ers made contact was, he says, they are famed for their community involvement. If one team would “really be in with both feet” it would be them.
“It seems to be the theme of their endeavour out here is that they want to come in in a meaningful way,” he said.
“They consulted with us very quickly to say, ‘Tell us everything that we don’t know about football in the Middle East'.
“We devised a bit of a strategy together. What we settled on was the schools programme, because as we continue to grow, we’re limited by the number of coaches that we have. To go into the schools is a major effort.”
The 49ers’ have grand aspirations: while the Dallas Cowboys are known as “America’s team”, the San Francisco side are hopeful they will one day be known as the “world’s team”.
The masterplan for spreading their message in the region is varied. They have started localised, Arabic media channels, with around 20,000 followers so far.
The content is focused more on education and experience, rather than being data heavy, as established fans in the US would more typically consume.
They have also partnered with McGettigan’s, hosting watch parties for matches with kick-off times that are more accessible to a UAE audience.
And this week they have had a delegation from the 49ers Foundation providing coach education on the sport – specifically the flag football version – to PE teachers from a variety of schools across the UAE.
They are focused on the grassroots at first, but if the project thrives, it could even include, at some point in the future, an in-season NFL fixture played in Abu Dhabi.
“The long-term thinking is very, very similar to what we do back in the States,” said Justin Prettyman, the executive director of the San Francisco 49ers Foundation.
“Our model in the Bay Area for nearly 35 years has been working in schools, getting teachers and students excited about this free offering that we’re providing to keep kids fit and active.
“And then if they’re interested in getting more involved and finding opportunities outside, we have amazing partners here. Hopefully they can join a league and get more involved.
“The end game is to spread the game. We know what the power of sports can do for communities. We are seeing how the kids have just fallen in love with it in a very short amount of time. The ceiling is really high.”
