| Fadhil Yunus |
PROJEK Ikan Pusu (PIP) head coach Haji Omar bin Haji Jamil has paid tribute to the National Football Association of Brunei Darussalam (NFABD) for organising two quality tournaments namely the NFABD Under-16 Youth League and NFABD Elite Youth Cup.
The head coach was grateful for the governing body for football in Brunei’s initiative of hosting a tournament which helps to raise the standard and lift the image of the country’s junior football.
“I would like to thank and commend NFABD for organising these top two quality tournaments that have given local teams the much needed match exposure that is so important in raising the standard of Brunei junior football,” said Haji Omar in an interview.
The PIP football development programme celebrate a very successful year after claiming the runners-up spot in both the league and cup losing twice to Tabuan ‘A’ while one of their key players Md Rizauddin Sukarnie bin Raizal scooped the NFABD Under-16 Golden Boot award and Abdul Hakeem bin Mohammad was awarded NFABD Under-16 Most Valuable Player.
Haji Omar was understandably pleased with his charges especially after only losing to the national juniors who are being prepared to play regional competitions such as the Asean Football Federation (AFF) tournament.
Projek Ikan Pusu (PIP) head coach Haji Omar bin Haji Jamil guided his team to runner-up finishes in the NFABD Under-16 Youth League and NFABD Elite Youth Cup this year. – PIP
“I am very pleased and proud that PIP has had a very successful year. Though we came up short against NFABD’s Tabuan ‘A’ in both competitions, we have actually performed well, given that Tabuan A is the national U-16 team,” he said.
“But, we need more keen but friendly competition of this nature in other junior age groups as well in order to make an even greater impact.”
“This is nevertheless a very good beginning and we hope to see more good things happening in Brunei junior football in the years to come,” he concluded.
PIP became the only team that have beaten Tabuan ‘A’ twice in both competitions during the group fixtures despite losing to the same side in the cup final.
Meanwhile, PIP manager Cheah Swee Ming said: “As good players don’t just drop from the sky, they need to be carefully nurtured through years of quality training and this is why we urgently need more emphasis on ‘Sports for All’ to enable even more and better quality players to be harvested in the future”.
“Nevertheless, thanks to the concerted efforts from all stakeholders, the days when Brunei Darussalam junior teams were the whipping boys of Asean football – where losing by double digits was common- is now thankfully behind us.”
“Our FIFA world ranking has also improved to No. 190 (as of Dec 2016) thanks to our national team’s recent good performances,” he added.
The post NFABD praised for developing junior football appeared first on Borneo Bulletin Online.