Find more new talents: Safa
Published on: Sunday, January 07, 2024
By: GL Oh
Juliah (in green) lifting the National Women’s League trophy with Shahelmey (in dark brown) and others at the function.
Kota Kinabalu: Sabah Football Association (Safa) President Datuk Shahelmey Yahya hoped that the State would continue to produce more women footballers of calibre.
He said this at the opening ceremony of the Datin Seri Juliah Salag Cup football carnival at the Sabah International Convention Centre, here, Friday.
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A total of 17 teams are taking part in the two-day competition held at the Sukma field from Saturday.
“I understand that the purpose of this tournament held for the first time is to find new talents and to produce more female players to represent our State and the national team.
“With this searching efforts, I hope we will be able to further improve the quality of our team to defend the National Women’s League title later this year as well as to win the gold medal at the Sarawak Sukma in August.
“I also want to call on all district football associations to take the initiative and organise local tournaments to ensure we won’t run out of talented female players,” said the Deputy Chief Minister.
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He also praised the State women’s team for their win at the National Women’s League last year and is confident the women’s football committee led by Muhd Arziz Afizy Rumsani will continue to bring more success.
“As Safa President, I am very proud of the development and achievements of our women football team who have created history by winning the inaugural 2023 National Women’s League title.
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“In addition, our Under-15 women’s football team also had a successful outing with a third place finish in the league.
“Their success proved the quality of our players and management. I would like to offer my congratulations and at the same time, appreciate their struggle and sacrifice to make the State’s name flourish at the national level.
“Thanks also to Sports School Malaysia Sabah for their good cooperation in forming the team with the 15-year-olds to represent the state.
“It is certainly not easy to manage a team, but I am confident with the committee led by Muhd Arziz Afizy, we will be able to produce more success in the future,” he added.
Meanwhile, Datin Seri Juliah who is the wife of Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor, gave away incentives at the function to the State women’s team players and officials as well as to three former women internationals, Beatrice Yaw, Laini Ahing and Haineh Liem for their contributions to the sport.
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