Asia Rugby, formerly the Asian Rugby Football Union, is the governing body of rugby union in Asia under the authority of World Rugby. Founded in 1968 by eight charter nations, the Union today has 36 member unions in countries across Asia, stretching from Kazakhstan to Guam.
The aim of Asia Rugby is "to raise physical and moral standards in Asia by education in the healthy pursuit of Rugby Football and to promote friendship among Asian countries".[citation needed]
Members
Asia Rugby has 36 member unions.[1] Not all member unions are members of World Rugby.[2] Asia Rugby members are listed below, with the year each union joined World Rugby shown in brackets. World Rugby associates are shown in italics.[3]
There are 22 World Rugby members, and 6 World Rugby associates:
Several rugby governing bodies for countries in Asia (partially, largely or entirely) – such as Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, Israel, Russia and Turkey – are members of the European body, Rugby Europe. Conversely, Kazakhstan, which is administered by European associations in other sports (such as within the football governing body, FIFA) is administered as part of Asia Rugby. In addition, Asia Rugby includes Guam (the organized unincorporated territory of the United States), which is arguably not in Asia, but in Oceania, and one transcontinental country, Indonesia.
A former member, the Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union, represented Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE until it was dissolved at the end of 2010 to allow separate national unions administer the game in each country.[4] The new governing body for the UAE became the 100th full member of World Rugby in November 2012.[5] In 2020, Qatar became an associate member of World Rugby and Saudi Arabia became an associate member of Asia Rugby. The other three countries do not yet have a national governing body affiliated with Asia Rugby.
Notes
* Denotes World Rugby associate membership date.
^† Cambodia regained associate membership of Asia Rugby in 2020,[6] after being suspended in 2016 for not complying with membership criteria.[7]
^‡ Vietnam is not currently a member of Asia Rugby.[1]
Tournaments
Asia Rugby supports regional and pan-Asian tournaments for men's and women's teams in fifteen-a-side and seven-a-side rugby, including:
The member unions form the Council which is Asia Rugby’s ultimate decision-making body. The Council meets twice a year, including for the Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the end of each year where the 12-person executive committee (Exco) is elected.[14]
As of 2020[update], the president of Asia Rugby is Qais Al-Dhalai of the United Arab Emirates.[15]
Management and staff of Asia Rugby, headed by CEO Benjamin Van Rooyen based at Olympic House, Causeway Bay in Hong Kong.[16]
Also, Asia Rugby has contracted with a number of Officers in Asia for Development.
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