Wednesday 11 / December / 2024
Muscat: The youngsters hold promise and talent for the future. A lot of potential and skills were on display at the inaugural Shabiba Challenge Cup, which was won by Seeb Club at Cheltenham Muscat on Friday.
The inaugural Shabiba Challenge Cup edition for the U12 age category witnessed six teams, including two from Saudi Arabia, vying for the top honors over two days. The tournament was played on a round-robin basis followed by three finals to decide the Gold (overall), Silver and Bronze Cup winners.
Seeb and Bousher Academy Oman emerged as the best two teams after playing five round-robin matches. In the Gold Cup final that decided the overall winner of the inaugural Shabiba Challenge Cup, Seeb trounced Bousher Academy 3-0.
The Silver Cup was clinched by Juventus Khobar Saudi with a 3-0 win over Muscat Football Academy (MFA) PDO while the Bronze Cup was claimed by MFA Cheltenham with a 4-2 victory over Juventus Jeddah Saudi.
Christian Fisher of MFA Cheltenham was declared the player of the tournament.
Organized by MFA in association with Al Shabiba newspaper and Cheltenham Muscat, the tournament was full of thrill and action and after two days of matches, the prize-distribution was held on Saturday.
The six teams that took part in the tournament were Juventus Jeddah Saudi, Juventus Khobar Saudi (both from Saudi Arabia), MFA Cheltenham, Seeb Club, Bousher Academy and MFA PDO (all from Oman).
Speaking after the successful conclusion of the tournament, MFA founder Chuck Martini said: “Despite the grueling heat, the matches were a great spectacle and played in a good spirit. The results reflected the high level of performance showcased by the young players.”
Martini added: “The Shabiba Challenger Cup tournament is the first of a series of events aimed at providing a platform for players of different age groups. In this edition, we had the tournament for the U12 age group but each team was allowed to field two U13 players. In the coming weeks, we will organize a tournament for the U14 and U16 age group categories.”
Martini said: “The Shabiba Challenger aims to support Omani clubs and provide players with good exposure by competing against teams from other nations. This edition we had players from Saudi Arabia, who were happy to play in Oman against good teams.”
