Nasser 9 football draw held

Manama: Under the patronage of HH Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, representative of His Majesty the King for Charity Works and Youth Affairs, Chairman of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports and President of Bahrain Olympic Committee, the draw of the football tournament in the second edition of Nasser bin Hamad Ramadan Sports Games “Nasser 9” was conducted at the Bahrain Football Association headquarters.

Among the attendees were Tawfiq Al-Salehi, head of HH Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa Media Centre and the tournament’s organising committee, Hassan Ismail, head of the tournament and Jassim Mahmood, head of the referees committee and representatives of the 16 participating teams.

At the beginning of the ceremony, Al-Salehi delivered a speech in which he greeted the guests and passed on Shaikh Nasser’s greetings and pointed out the significance of the football event in its ninth edition and growing interest of more teams wanting to join, but keeping it to 16.

He stressed the importance of keeping high level performances of participating teams in all matches to prove their merit to the competition. He highlighted the necessity to think about getting professional players with high level of performance as happened last year, besides giving Bahraini youth the chance to participate.

Al-Salehi further added that Nasser bin Hamad tournament contributed to improving the Bahraini football system by allowing players who are not registered under the Bahrain Football Association and allowing teams to contract two professional players from within or outside Bahrain, as in previous tournaments.

Four groups of four will be played with Victorious, Nomas, Suqoor Al Bahrain, and Al-Ameed in Group A.

Defending champions Al Fakhar, Al-Wihda, Galaticos and Batelco Dreams are in Group B, in Group C are Team Forever, Al-Nuwayef, Majestic Cars and Fast Link.

Group D are last year’s runner-ups Gunners United with Al Zilzal, Fiesta and Falcons.

Head of the tournament, Hassan Ismail confirmed the group matches are on a round-robin basis and the top two would qualify for the quarter finals.

They would play out on a knock-out basis under FIFA rules and those teams will be allowed to register two professional players only, Bahrainis or foreigners, as long as permission is obtained from the players’ clubs, approved by the Bahrain Football Association.

It is also possible to register two players with permanent residence in the Kingdom.

Jassim Mahmood, head of the referees committee of the tournament, stressed that the matches will be refereed by international referees that are approved by the Bahrain Football Association.