AMMAN — HRH Prince Feisal, president of the Jordan Olympic Committee (JOC), said on Tuesday that positive developments in sports in the Kingdom can be seen and sensed.

“Our aim is to build a better future for sports in Jordan through our partnership with sports federations and the media. This is the time to build better organisation and planning for the next generation of athletes,” Prince Feisal said to media representatives at the JOC headquarters.

The Prince focused on the work and effort of restructuring the JOC and the need to have experienced financial and HR managers who can work in attracting other resources to help sponsor sports in the Kingdom and ease the burden on the government.

“We are working on a comprehensive capacity-building project for staff which will guarantee a permanent evaluation in order to develop their work based on their qualifications and skills,” he said.

The new vision for the JOC covers major developments in relation to the federations, expanding sports in the Kingdom and working on the new generation of athletes.

The Prince stated that the JOC is planning to invest in a centre to serve athletes.

“The centre will include all major aspects of a sports centre such as training, sports medicine, dieticians in addition to others and will operate based on specific criteria that will assist the federations in upgrading their work and plans.

The Prince said the JOC wants to be a partner with the sports federations and not just be an observer.

“We want to have an open channel with the federations and establish a continuous dialogue to assist them to overcome the various challenges they are facing. The federations should work on their strategic plans based on the JOC’s vision of a better future for sports. We have some federations that work relentlessly to develop their work and others that work based on personal agenda. The JOC is a partner not an observer,” he said.

Recently there have been some controversies regarding suggestions to amend articles in the sports federations which were discussed technically and legally with the federations and sent to the Legislation and Opinion Bureau.

One of the most important issues was the need to have a college degree to be a member in the federation.

“During the London Olympics we will have an excellent chance to meet with several international federations and study their regulations and benefit from them. We need to work as one team to overcome all challenges we face to have a better result,” he said.

Meanwhile, Prince Feisal said that Jordan’s participation in London Olympic is a great achievement and that the last four years were very exciting in preparing the athletes who will represent the Kingdom.

“We are really proud of our participation and we were so close in having the basketball team with us. The Olympic qualification programme assisted in qualifying athletes which was part of the comprehensive plan by the JOC,” he said.

London Olympics marks Jordan’s ninth appearance at the Olympics.

Jordan’s delegation to the July 27-August 12 Games consists of Mohammad Abu Libdeh, Nadeen Dawani and Dana Haider (taekwondo), Ibrahim Bisharat (equestrian), Ehab Darwish (boxing), Talita Baqleh and Karim Enab (swimming), Mithqal Abadi and Reema Farid (athletics).

“We still have a long way in the organisation process, changing mentality and social culture towards sports but we have a vision and a message we need to fulfil for a better tomorrow,” the Prince said.

At the end of the meeting, the Prince stressed on the role of the media in developing and assisting sports in having a better vision saying that having an open and clear channel with the media is the key to success.

The planning stage will start after the London Olympics and will continue till the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.