Ice hockey in the United Arab Emirates

Ice hockey is a minor sport that is gaining popularity in United Arab Emirates. The premier ice hockey league in the UAE is Emirates Ice Hockey League (EHL) which began in 2009. The U.A.E. Ice Hockey Association is one of the few sports associations recognized by the United Arab Emirates government.
In 2018, new president of the EHL Vladimir Burdun was appointed. His role was to strengthen UAE ice hockey team and attract more business opportunities.
In 2019, Burdun announced the goal of entering a team in Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) which involved teams from Belarus, China, Finland, Latvia, Kazakhstan, and Russia by 2021. He also aimed at getting more players ready for KHL. A new ice arena is expected to open in Abu Dhabi in 2019 which meets all the requirements of the KHL. The plan was to replicate the recent success of a NHL team situated in deserts, Vegas Golden Knights. NHL and KHL stars such as Pavel Datsyuk, Sergei Mozyakin, Alexander Ovechkin were mentioned to increase competitiveness.