Lea Group’s Poh (second left) hands over the challenge trophy to Dr Rundi, witnessed by (from left) Duke, Dumas Holdings Sdn Bhd chief operating officer Dato Nadzirudin Mohidin and LSC staff.
BINTULU: More talented young footballers from rural areas should be given exposure and the opportunity to play for the country, said Minister of Public Utilities cum Kemena assemblyman Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom.
He was referring to the rural players from Belaga, Pandan, Sebauh and in other rural areas who never had the chance to compete at the divisional level competition.
“The participation of players in the tournament should be seen by the players as an opportunity to stamp their mark in football,” he said at the presentation of a challenge trophy and jersey for Sarawak Rural Youth Football Cup 2016 sponsored by Lea Sports Centre (LSC) in conjunction with the launch of Kemena Football Academy (KFA) office at Bintulu Football Association (Bifa) Office at Parkcity Commercial Centre yesterday.
The symbolic event was officiated by Lea Group of Companies senior operations manager Poh Siok Hoon who represented managing director Raymond Sim to Dr Rundi before the challenge trophy was handed over to Bifa president Duke Janteng.
In the meantime, several teams will be competing in the Sarawak Rural Youth Football Cup (Bintulu) from Dec 13 to 17 in Bintulu. The matches at the zone level for players aged 18 and below started since Oct 15 for all zones in urban and rural areas in Bintulu.
Bifa president Duke said the first match kicks off at SMK Bakun, followed by three other venues at SK Kampung Iran (Samalaju-Suai zone), SMK Sebauh (Sebauh zone), SMK Kemena (Kemena-Jepak-Tatau zone) and the final game to be held in Bintulu.
Duke, who is the vice president of Sarawak FA, said the tournament was held mainly to scout for new football talents in Bintulu and 32 teams have been shorlisted to compete in the tournament in their respective zones to select the best eight teams.
“These eight best teams will then compete in the inter-zone match and two best teams will play in the final,” he said, adding that the tournament was participated by 300 youth players.