By FRANCIS XAVIER
KOTA KINABALU: The Safa Cup football tournament 2018 reaches its climax when eight teams will battle it out for the top honour in the grand finals that will be happening in the state capital from November 19-24.
And the stage is all set for the participating teams to strut their stuff with the conclusion of the draw that was conducted at the Sabah Football Association (Safa) office in Maksak Hall in Likas, near here yesterday, in the presence of representatives from all the participating teams.
It was witnessed by Safa vice president Ismail Haji Ayub.
Tournament director Reggie Sua @ Haffez, organising secretary Muhimian Moksin, as well as Safa executive secretary Hasbullah Yahya, were also present.
The eight teams, who were all winners of their respective zones, have been drawn into two groups of four teams. When met by reporters, Ismail said the main objective of the tournament is to unearth new talent, apart from exposing young footballers to this level of competition.
“We hope the championship will be the start of better things for the new leadership in Safa. It is also our hope that the tournament will be able to unearth hidden talents that can be roped in to represent the state in national level tournaments.
“We have our scouting people in the hunt for hidden talents during all matches, including during the zone-level tournaments.
“The scouting committee have identified quite a number of players that we will call to attend centralised training cum selection trials,” said Ismail, who is also the deputy organising chairman.
To a question, he said that they are happy with how things went throughout the zone-level tournaments that concluded last week.
“The response has been pretty much positive. We are made to understand that there are quite a number of potential players that can be nurtured to become better players,” he said.
“I believe the tournament will achieve its objective in bringing out hidden talents from throughout the state,” Ismail said, while calling on local football fans to come and turn up for the grand finals matches next week.
The grand finals will be played at two venues – the Likas Stadium and Penampang Stadium. All Group A matches will be played in the morning while Group B matches in the afternoon.
At yesterday’s draw, Keningau (winners of Interior Upper Zone), Sipitang (Interior Lower Zone)), Kinabatangan (Sandakan Zone) and Kuala Penyu (Interior Central Zone) were drawn in Group A, while Group B is made up of Kota Kinabalu (West Coast Zone), Kota Belud (Nabalu Zone), Kota Marudu (North Zone) and Tawau (Tawau Zone). For the record, Kota Kinabalu are the last team to win the annual tournament that was formerly known as the Chief Minister’s Cup Inter-District Football Tournament.
The rest of the former winners in the fray are Keningau and Tawau. The other former champions, Sandakan and Labuan did not make the cut.
For the record, all morning matches that will be played at the two venues will kick off at 7.30am while afternoon matches, also to be played at two venues, will start at 3.30pm.
The group matches will be played from November 19 to 21 while semi-finals on November 23 and final the following day.
This time around, the champions will receive RM5,000 prize money plus trophies and medals, with RM3,000 plus trophy and medals for the runners-up.
The third and fourth placed teams will be rewarded with RM2,000 and RM1,500 prize money respectively, and medals.
