RAF Abu Dhabi Schedule
Etihad Arena, Yas Island · from 14 November 2026
One date a year, announced ahead of the matches that fill it — how the RAF calendar in Abu Dhabi is built and what an evening looks like from the first match to the last.
14 November 2026
The opening Abu Dhabi night, and the first date of a five-year run in the emirate.
First Match at 20:00
The evening is scheduled to open at 20:00 Gulf Standard Time; doors are confirmed by the organiser.
One Venue
Every RAF date in Abu Dhabi is staged at Etihad Arena on Yas Island — no venue changes mid-calendar.
A Card, Not a Bracket
Matches are standalone meetings in a running order, so there is no draw to follow between rounds.
One Ticket, Whole Night
A ticket admits you to the full card rather than to a single match on it.
Matches Land Later
The date is announced first; individual pairings are confirmed in the weeks that follow.
How the Abu Dhabi Calendar Is Set
RAF in Abu Dhabi works on one date a year. The five-year agreement between the league, the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi and the UAE Wrestling Federation puts a single event in the emirate's calendar annually through 2031, and 14 November 2026 at Etihad Arena is the first of them.
That shapes how this page behaves. There is no group stage to track, no qualification to follow and no second venue to choose between. What changes between the announcement and the night itself is the card — which matches are on it, and in what order they run.
Date First, Matches Second
The league confirms the date and the venue well ahead of the pairings, and fills the card over the weeks that follow. An early announcement will typically name the athletes expected to headline; the rest of the running order arrives later, and can still move as late as event week if someone withdraws.
This page does not reproduce that list in prose, deliberately — a running order written into a text file goes stale the first time the league changes it. The catalogue above this text is the live version: it shows what is currently released for the date, and it updates when the organiser does.
How the discipline works and what the league is are explained on the about RAF Abu Dhabi page.
How an Evening Is Ordered
An evening opens with the earlier matches and builds toward the ones the card is sold on. Because nothing is scripted, the length of any single match is not fixed: a pin or a wide points gap can end one in under two minutes, while an even contest runs its full time. The published start time is therefore the start of the evening, not the start of the match you came for.
In practice that means treating the advertised 20:00 as the moment to already be inside. Arriving for the headline alone risks missing it — with short matches ahead of it, the order can run well ahead of a rough estimate.
Planning Around the Date
A single-night event concentrates everything into one evening, which makes the rest of the trip easier to plan and the night itself harder to reschedule. Flights, hotel and the return journey hang on one date, and there is no second session to fall back on.
November helps: Abu Dhabi averages around 31 °C by day and 21 °C overnight that month, so the outdoor half of the evening — the walk to the doors, the wait for a car afterwards — is comfortable rather than something to endure. Travel times to the arena, parking and the approach on Yas Island are set out on the venue guide.