SITIAWAN (March 25, 2012) : Passion for football was evident at the Astaka Stadium here on Saturday when 420 boys from 30 primary schools around the Manjung district gathered to take part in the first ever 1Malaysia Cardiff City (1MCC) Football Festival.
By invitation of the Manjung District Education Office, each school in the district brought over 14 of their best players to participate in friendly 7-a-side matches, each lasting 20 minutes.
"We are indebted to 1MCC for choosing Sitiawan and the Lumut Parliamentary area as the inaugural location to hold the festival. This festival will instil the passion of playing football in the hearts of our youths," said Transport Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha who launched the event.
Of the 30 elementary schools that participated on Saturday, three were from Tamil schools and four from Chinese schools. The diversity of races in attendance makes the festival a 1Malaysia event, remarked Kong, who is also Lumut MP.
"They are all winners here today; they (the kids) will each receive a medal and a certificate for participating. Our goal is for them to have fun, and to give them exposure and experience to football at a level that they may not be used to," said 1MCC Operations Manager Cameron Ng.
To accommodate the games, the newly inaugurated Astaka Stadium was divided into five smaller fields. Each field was equipped with inflatable goal posts that were brought by 1MCC straight from the UK.
With teachers and parents on tow, every boy had a big smile on his face and played to his best.
To the children, this is the closest they have ever got to playing football at a professional level.
"I am having a lot of fun. Me and my friends get to train with Cardiff Coaches like Robert Eshun. I always see him on TV. If they do this again next year I will definitely join," said Benjamin Washington, 10, from SJK (T) Ladang Walbrook.
A true sportsman, Laurance Dang Ke Yu, 11, from SJK(C) Eng Ling plays many sports including badminton and basketball but football is his favorite. He hopes that future events will be open to students 12 and under so that he could participate next year.
"This is a great event by the 1MCC. The festival is not over yet but there's already teachers and students asking when will the next festival be held," said Manjung District Football Organisation (PBDM) development and technical bureau chairman Ranjit Singh.
In support, PBDM provided 10 officials to referee the festival.
Watching over the kids at play were nine coaches led by 1MCC's own Technical Coaching Coordinator, Matthew Holland.
"We (the coaches) are going to choose 40 kids based on their performance. These kids will then get to train with us in a special session tomorrow. We can see that there are some talented payers here," said Holland.
At the end of the festival on Saturday, eight lucky boys got to play a friendly match against the Cardiff City coaches.
By:
Azizul Rahman Ismailnewsdesk@thesundaily.com
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