2013 football year starts

Somalia's 2013 football year has partially started with the opening match of the division B league played here in Mogadishu on Friday, as the Division A league is being kept on pending until FIFA has completed the construction of the country's old faculty 'Stadium Banadir' where the top level league will take place, according to Somali Football Federation Secretary General Abdi Qani Said Arab who talked to the media in Mogadishu on Friday.

The secretary General who talked to the media during the Division B league opening ceremony Friday noted that the C level league will start on Sunday the 21^st of April and both competitions will be taking place at the Somali University Stadium while, the country’s topmost and the most populous football league is awaiting until the completion of Stadium Banadir reconstruction.

"Today we are here to launch the second division league followed by the 3^rd division which is slated to commence over the weekend—our intention was to hold the three competitions in the same time, but we are sorry to announce that the Division A league has been postponed, because of Stadium Banadir is not yet ready for hosting a tournament and we are very hopeful that FIFA will quicken the conclusion of the reconstruction work of the Old facility” SFF secretary General Abdi Qani Said Arab accentuated in his media briefing at the ill-equipped Somali University Stadium on Friday.

Secretary General Abdi Qani Said Arab praised the authorities of the SFF-affiliated division B & Division C football clubs who he said have played a key role in the implementation of the federation’s policy of creating young age and fully talented players as part of strengthening SFF youth development programs which have so far yielded very positive results.

"Young boys of 15-17 years of age are expected to be representing the division C clubs in the upcoming competition, while the division B clubs have already come up with boys of 18-20 years of age, so on the behalf of Somali Football Federation I am here by confirming that our clubs had taken seriously and fully implemented our policy of creating young age footballers” Secretary General Abdi Qani Said Arab stated.

For his part Somali Football Federation President Ali Said Guled Roble indicated that the current league is fully expected to be more interesting and more competitive than previous leagues and that is because of the great and huge preparations made by the participating clubs so far.

"I know that well-prepared, talented and young players are here whose first performance fully satisfied the SFF authorities and the thousands of fans here, as I have known from the first half of the opening match today” Somali Football Federation president Ali Said Guled Roble told the media after the end of the first half of Friday’s opening match between Al-Beder and DBG.

Each of the clubs tried their best to win Friday’s opening match in a bid to accumulate the 3 points that a win of a football match brings, but the very competitive opening match ended in a stalemate of 0-0 draw with each club leaving with only a single point. During Friday’s match only two yellow cards were given to a player of each club as shown here below

AL BEDER FC