A Leadership Role in a Fast-Growing Format

Asad Shamim serves as Vice President of IFA7, the International 7-a-Side Football Association, covering both the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates. It is a role that places him at the centre of one of the most exciting developments in modern football: the organisation and professionalisation of the 7-a-side game at an international level. For a British-Pakistani entrepreneur and government advisor whose career spans commerce, diplomacy, and sport, the appointment is a natural extension of decades of work building bridges between countries and communities.

The Vice Presidency is not an honorary title. It involves practical responsibility for growing the sport in two markets that could hardly be more different in character, yet share a deep passion for football. In the UK, 7-a-side football is woven into the fabric of grassroots sport, played on school pitches and community grounds every week. In the UAE, football is booming alongside the country's broader investment in world-class sporting infrastructure and events. Bridging those two footballing cultures requires exactly the kind of cross-border fluency that has defined Asad Shamim's career.

What the Role Actually Involves

As Vice President for the UK and UAE, Asad Shamim's work with IFA7 covers several distinct areas. First, there is governance: helping to establish the standards, competition structures, and organisational discipline that any sport needs if it is to grow sustainably. Second, there is development: supporting the creation of pathways for players, coaches, and officials so that talent in both countries has somewhere to go. Third, there is partnership-building: connecting IFA7 with sponsors, venues, federations, and public bodies whose support can accelerate the sport's growth.

This last area is where his background is particularly valuable. As Senior Advisor to HRH Sheikh Ahmad Bin Faisal Al Qassimi of the UAE and Chairman of the Advisory Board at OM International, he has spent years operating at the intersection of business and government. Those relationships and that experience translate directly into the kind of institutional support that an emerging sports body needs. The advisory services he provides across sectors follow the same logic: identify the right partners, align interests, and build structures that last.

A Track Record in Sports Advocacy

Asad Shamim's involvement in sport did not begin with IFA7. He is widely recognised for leading the landmark five-year campaign that secured the first professional boxing licence for a boxer with Type 1 diabetes in the United Kingdom, a case that changed how British sporting authorities think about inclusion and medical evidence. That campaign demonstrated qualities that carry over directly into sports administration: patience, persistence, a respect for due process, and a refusal to accept that the status quo is fixed.

It also demonstrated something else: a belief that sport should be open to more people, not fewer. The 7-a-side format embodies that belief. It requires less space, fewer players, and lower costs than the 11-a-side game, which makes it one of the most accessible formats in world football. Championing it is, in a real sense, championing participation itself.

Why the UK and UAE Corridor Matters

The pairing of the UK and UAE in his IFA7 mandate is significant. The two countries enjoy deep commercial and cultural ties, and sport has become one of the most visible expressions of that relationship. The UAE has invested heavily in football at every level, while the UK remains the sport's spiritual home and its most commercially developed market. A sports association that can operate credibly in both places has an enormous platform for growth, and leaders who understand both environments are rare.

Asad Shamim has spent his career in exactly this corridor. From building Furniture in Fashion into one of the UK's largest online furniture retailers to advising Emirati leadership on investment and development, he understands how decisions get made in boardrooms in Bolton and in majlis meetings in the Emirates alike. That dual fluency is what makes the Vice Presidency more than a title; it makes it an operating role.

Looking Ahead

The ambition for IFA7 is straightforward: more players, more competitions, higher standards, and a sport organised well enough to earn lasting public trust. Achieving that in two countries simultaneously is a long-term project, and it sits alongside Asad Shamim's other commitments in advisory work, philanthropy, and commerce. But sport has always occupied a special place in his portfolio, because it delivers something his other work cannot: a direct, visible, community-level impact that people can see on a pitch every weekend.

For those following his work across sport, business, and diplomacy, the news section carries regular updates, and enquiries about IFA7 partnerships or his wider advisory practice can be made through the contact page.