The Saudi Indian Football Forum (SIFF), is all set to resume its annual soccer tournament at the Ministry of Education Stadium here on Feb. 10. The 16th championship, which has been approved by the General Presidency of Youth Welfare (GPYW) Saudi Arabia, will be conducted under the auspices of the Consulate General of India. The tournament, which is mainly sponsored by Western Union Money Transfer, will be dubbed as “SIFF Western Soccer 2012.” This was announced by SIFF President Hifsu Rehman at a press conference which was also attended by Media Connect President Dileep Ibrahim, Western Union Diaspora Manager Mohammed Aashiq, former SIFF presidents K.P. Abdul Salam and T. P. Ahmed and SIFF secretary Mohammed Musaliyarakath. The three-month long soccerfest will be also supported by Naseem Jeddah Hospital, Jeddah National Hospital and Rose Biriyani Rice. SIFF, which has been organizing the championship without fail since its inception in 1995, could not conduct this popular annual event for the last two years due to some logistic and technical problems beyond its control. Of the 22 registered clubs, 15 teams will be vying for honors this year. Along with the reigning champions ACC A and B in the first and second divisions respectively, the two new clubs who have entered the fray are United Sports Club and Jeddah Sports Club. In honor of the founding president Dr Abdullah Moopan, who expired recently in India, the fair play trophy will be named after him. The matches will be conducted on a league-cum-knockout format. Five seeded teams are competing for the first division title while ten teams which have been divided into two groups, will be fighting it out for the second division crown. The matches will be officiated by Saudi referees.
