Meet the Founder
Hi, I am Sami
My name is Sami Shamrani, the founder of YARD Hub initiative. With over 20 years of experience in project-based industry and certifications like MPM, P3O, PBA, PMP, and VMA, I’ve dedicated my career to helping organizations achieve their goals through structured project management.
But YARD Hub is more than just another project—it’s a reflection of my passion for football and my belief that great management can transform even the most challenging industries.
The Story of YARD
The idea for YARD Hub grew over time, sparked by a transformative moment in June 2023. The Saudi Sports Minister announced the transfer of ownership of four major Saudi Pro League clubs to the Public Investment Fund (PIF) as part of a bold privatization initiative. Super stars were contracted to play with Saudi’s teams, the Saudi Pro League become one of the top league in Asia.
As a football fan, I saw this as a historic step for Saudi football. But as a consultant, I began to ask: How can we make this sustain and even developed? A few months later, when Saudi Arabia Football Federation (SAFF) declared its intent to bid for the FIFA World Cup 2034, the vision for Yard Hub truly began to take shape.
Developing local football at this scale is no small challenge. Having been a passionate football fan for over 30 years, I’ve gained a deep understanding of the industry’s nuances. But with the privatization framework in place, and competing on global level, it introduces a higher level of change management. Achieving this goal requires effort, attention to detail, and unwavering commitment—but most importantly, it requires a sustainability mindset.
From a business perspective, local clubs, leagues, and organizations face significant challenges—balancing finances, managing resources, and planning for long-term success. The football industry become more complicated than before, as all the business sectors. These are the same issues I’ve spent years addressing in my professional life, and I realized that the principles of business project management could revolutionize football management. So, my first step was exploring the football as industry.
I began navigating the football landscape and accruing knowledge. I even applied for the Football Administration and Management Program (FAM) offered by the AFC to sharpen my expertise. Over the next year, I gathered information, located resources, benchmarked and analyzed previous projects, identified gaps, and expressed challenges. It was a year-long journey of preparation that led to the birth of YARD Hub: An initiative dedicated to equipping football stakeholders with the tools to not just survive, but thrive.
Why YARD?
Yard Hub bridges the worlds of project management and football. Our mission is to guide football clubs and organizations toward sustainable success by embedding modern management practices into their operations. From leadership and talent development to infrastructure planning, we aim to make a lasting impact on football management and beyond.
Football has always been more than a game to me—it’s a stage for dreams, collaboration, and growth. Perhaps that’s why I’ve always been drawn to project management. Football and project management share a common essence: teamwork, planning, and execution to achieve a shared goal within a limited timeframe. Every event, competition, league, match, and training session can be seen as a project to initiate, plan, and manage, with lessons learned to improve in the future. This is the philosophy that drives both my work in project management and my vision for Yard Hub.
Through Yard Hub, I hope to inspire and enable others to achieve greatness on and off the field. Let’s build something extraordinary together. Feel free to explore Yard Hub or reach out—I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas about shaping the future of football management. Most importantly, I want you to share in the success. Yard Hub is not a personal endeavor; it is a sustainable initiative designed to endure and evolve long into the future.