HH Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani is the founder of ASPIRE Academy for Sports Excellence. His wish was to create a world-class institution for educational sport that would:

• Develop Qatari athletes who would be the competitive hearts of Qatar’s junior and senior national teams
• Be known worldwide for its state-of-the-art sports science
• Produce graduates who would become Qatar’s most admired civic leaders more

ASPIRE Academy for Sports Excellence sits within a 600-acre sports district called ASPIRE ZONE. The Dome is the main instructional facility for the Academy and, connected to it, are the ASPIRE Academy school, dormitory and administration building, as well as world-class outdoor fields and facilities. In addition to these facilities, which are used almost exclusively by ASPIRE Academy, there are many others that attract international sports events. View all Academy facilities. Additional facilities are available within ASPIRE ZONE and are used by the Academy for its events and competitions. ASPIRE ZONE is also the independent host of events, such as the 2006 Asian Games and 2009 World Indoor Athletics Championships.  ASPIRE Dome tours are available (email PR@aspire.qa).

ASPIRE Academy is one of three Directorates of the ASPIRE Zone Foundation. The other two SBUs are (1) ASPETAR, an internationally-recognized and FIFA-certified orthopaedic and sports medicine hospital that provides medical services to ASPIRE Academy student-athletes, as well as to all elite athletes in Qatar; and (2) LOGISTICS, which operates and maintains all of the facilities within ASPIRE Zone. ASPIRE Zone is the 600-acre sports district that houses all Academy facilities but also includes Khalifa Stadium, hotels, parklands, an aquatics center, the Villaggio shopping complex and numerous other sporting facilities. The Aspire Zone Foundation is governed by a President and Vice President, to whom the Director General of ASPIRE Academy reports.

Within ASPIRE Academy, the Director General’s staff consists of the Legal Advisor, the Executive Director for International Affairs, an Executive Secretary and the Head of Planning and Quality Management. The governance structure of the Academy consists of a Chief Operating Officer (COO), reporting directly to the Director General, and the Directors of four departments and the Head of the ASPIRE ACTIVE Center reporting to the COO. The COO and the Directors form the Directors Group, which meets on a weekly basis to make recommendations to the Director General [see Academy Organization Chart]

Key to the achievement of the Academy’s objectives, as established by the ASPIRE Zone Foundation, are carefully designed programs and administrative structures and a passionate Academy staff who care about our student-athletes and have an extraordinary work ethic.