DEBUTANTS Wawasan 2020 and Destiny Football dvelopment Centre won the 4th Tan Sri Hamidin Mohd Amin Challenge Trophy Xmail Fc Veteran / 2nd Under 16, 9s Football Tournaments. respectively at the Melwood Arena, Sungei Buluh on Saturday.
It was also the first for the new named tournament, as it changed name from the Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin / X Mail FC Veterans 9s football tournament to Tan Sri Hamidin Mohd Amin Challenge Trophy tournament.
The change came about when on Sept 7, Datuk Hamidin, the FA of Malaysia presiden, was conferred the title of Darjah Panglima Setia Mahkota ((P.S.M) which carries the title of Tan Sri, by His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia, in conjunction with his official birthday.
This year, the tournament was held at the Melwood Arena in Sungei Buluh, following the inaugural tournament in Kuala Kubu Bharu in 2021, followed by in Taiping and last year in Ipoh.
The Tan Sri Hamidin Challenge trophies donated by the FA of Malaysia president, also saw the introduction of a Under-16 tournament with another Challenge Trophy last year.
Last year saw the participation of a foreign team for the first time in the Veteran’s category – Bacolod United – from the Philippines, but unfortunately they could not come this year.
Organised by the Kuala Lumpur XMail Veterans FC, the tournament saw eight invited teams in each category, compete in the one-day tournament, at the beautiful and scenic Melwood Arena surrounded by hills and forest.
The tournament kicked off with a march past of participating teams with each team carrying the 14 state flags and Malaysian flag to commentate the Malaysia Day tomorrow (Sept 16) and sang the national anthem and Selangor state anthem to honour the tournament was held in Selangor.
ASP Rajendran Kanhiah from Shah Alam Police, who is the Malaysian Indian Football Association deputy president and president of victorious team Wawasan 2020 club president, was the guest of honour for the opening ceremony.
On Friday night, Tan Sri Hamidin was present for the welcome dinner at Royal Selangor Club Sports Annex at Bukit Kiara.
In his address he had said: “I am glad to see small clubs organise tournaments like this, especially age-group tournaments to unearth our young talent and give them competition exposure.
“As for the veterans, it is good to still see them in the game, which helps them keep fit and healthy, while still active in the game,” said Tan Sri Hamidin.
“As this tournament also incorporates the U16 tournament, the veteran players should serve as example for the youngsters with their discipline in the game, fairplay play, besides displaying their vintage skills,” said Tan Hamidin with a cheeky laugh.
The teams who competed on Sunday in the veteran category for players 45 years and above category, were host XMail FC Veterans, Melwood Boys FC, Club Aman, UM Legends, Wawasan 2020, Rain FC, MCFA and Sportwriters Association of Malaysia (SAM),
While in the Under-16 teams the teams who competed were My World Hunters FA Academy (Penang), Black Leopard FA (KL), CIMB YFA (KL), DTFT (Selangor), KR7 FC (Malacca), Destiny FDC (Selangor) ,Wira MAS Ipoh (Perak) and PD U Rangers FC (Port Dickson, NS).Â
The teams were divided into two Groups in each category at the draw on Friday namely for veterans – Group A: UM Legends, XMail FC, Wawasan 2020 an Rain FC and in Group B:Club Aman, Melwood FC, Malaysian Chinese Football Association (MCFA) and Sportwriters Association of Malaysia (SAM).
In the Under-16 category in Group A were PD U Rangers, KR&, My World, Destiny FDC and Group B were DTFT CIMB YFA, Wira Emas and Black Leopards.
After the Group preliminary league round in their respective Groups, the top two teams qualified for the Championship semifinals, while the third placed and fourth team played in the Plate semifinals.
In the Veteran final, both the teams – Wawasan 2020 and Rain FC – were from Group A.
In the Group match both teams played to 0-0 draw and in final after the game was tied again at 1-1, it had to be decided by penalty kicks and Wawasan 2020 won 3-2
In the semifinals, it was close encounters as Wawasan 2020 beat Club Aman 1-0 and Rain FC also won by a similar score (1-0) beating Melwood Boys.
In the Plate Final, hosts Xmail beat UM Legends 3-1 and in their earlier meeting in the Group match had defeated UM Legends 4-1.
Individual prizes for the veterans were as follows:Best Goalkeeper: Mohamed Redzuan (Rain FC)Top Scorer of the Tournament: K. Nanthakumar – 5 goals (XMail FC KL)Man-of-the match in the Final: Murugarajoo Muniandy (Wawasan 2020)Fair Play Trophy: UM Legends
The top scorer for both the veteran and Under-16 category received a return air-ticket each courtesy of Trans Nusa, besides a trophy.
The man-of-the match (final) received Puma goods besides the trophy.
In the Under-16 category, the final although keenly contested by Destiny FDC and CIMB YFA, it was marred with some rough play which certainly did not angur well for youth level development
The final witnessed by Christopher Raj, representing Tan Sri Hamidin, who is the FAM Exco member and also was the national Under-16 team manager, was certainly not pleased with what he saw, although he was impressed with the talent.
CIMB YFA’s coach Gobi was red carded for entering the field when their goalkeeper was injured and floor without referee’s call and uttered some unpleasanteries to the referee, while Destiny’s Micha Foo was red carded for rough play- it was the tournament’s only red to a player.
Destiny wrested the title with a 2-0 win ( Adam Danish and Zafran Rasfan) and went on to win several individual awards – Top Scorer – Ahmad Zaref Kamabarin (4 goals); Best Goalkeeper (Ashraf Rashid) and Man-of-the match in final (Adam Danish).
Destiny, based in Shah Alam, is a well established club under leadership of founder and managing director Aylwin Henry Skelchy, whose clubs have close ties with German clubs.
Four of their players in the team, had just returned from a playing tour of Germany.
The Fairplay Trophy was awarded to Black Leopard.
The champions for the Veterans category took home RM2,500.00, runners-up RM1,500.00, the third placed RM750.00 and fourth placed RM400.00 and medals.
The champions of both veteran and U16 categories were also given a take-away champion trophy.
For the Losers Pool final, the winner received RM400.00 and the loser RM300.00 and medals.
For the Under 16 category, prize money was offered this year.
The the champion received RM800.00, runners-up RM500.00, the third placed RM300.00 and fourth placed RM200.00 and medals.For the Losers Pool final, the winner received RM200.00 and the loser RM100.00 and medals.
The inaugural champions of the veteran tournament was Huaren FC, followed by XMail FC and last year Navashini Ipoh.
The inaugural Under-16 champion was Ipoh City Council.
The tournament was made possible with personal contribution of supporters and well wishers of the XMail team and several regular sponsors who are friends of XMail FC.Among the sponsors include ShekhinahPR who was largely instrumental in the tournament being organised this year , Ampersand Advisory, 100 Plus/ Borneo Springs, Milo, TransNusa, Flash Sukan, HA Megah Technology Sdn Bhd, BNT Recycle Sdn Bhd and KR Travels.
It was indeed and exciting edition with interesting battles are on card in both categories, as teams have submitted formidable teams.
The veteran category see several ex-state, ex-national juniors and ex-international competing.
Among them include K. Nathankumar, Paidiya Rao, S. Saravanan, Lee Ban Tat, A. Muralitharan, S. Jayaprakash, M. Chandran, Ismail Ibrahim and Asmawi Bakiri to name a few.
The tournament moves every year to a new venue to bring the game to all States including Sabah and Sarawak in the near future.
