Believe in the system

Muhammad Radzuan bin Hj Madali, the chairman of the AFC U-14 Football Festival 2015 in Brunei Darussalam

It has to start somewhere.. Back to basics. Even in sports. It’s good to know that NFABD the National Football Association of Brunei Darussalam is working its way up to improve the development of our popular sport in Brunei – football. Things have been definitely improving and it’s never easy as 1-2-3. It’s not just about the results and performance. It’s also about the development of the sport. So I’m quite happy to know that Brunei Darussalam has been given the opportunity to host the AFC U-14 football festival for this year and next year as well.

Yesterday was the first official announcement from NFABD chaired by Muhammad Radzuan bin Hj Madali, the organising chairman for the AFC U-14 football festival. The press conference took place at NFABD House yesterday for the members of the media.

For NFABD and Brunei Darussalam, this is considered a huge opportunity as Asian Football Confederation has entrusted Brunei to host such event. This is also the first time that Brunei host such a prestigious sporting event.

According to the chairman, there will be no competition or a trophy to play for despite being drawn into two groups. The objective of the football festival is to expose the young footballers to play against another regional country and gain more experience which can help the development of football for the future.

The chairman is thankful for the media for the coverage. Check out today’s newspapers too.

Fadhil Yunus asking a few questions to the organising chair

Holding the official match ball for the football festival

The official ball Lotto

The AFC U-14 Football Festival will take place from 18th August to 22nd August 2015 where it will have the opening and the closing ceremony. The participating countries apart from the host Brunei Darussalam will be Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Timor Leste.

The Chairman also pointed out how the other youth team has shown improvement recently as the score lines were very minimal despite all the loses. On previous years, the gap of the score lines were bigger. This time round the U-14 Brunei team will consist of 18 shortlisted players and in this football festival, every listed player will be given the chance on every game as part of the rules sanctioned by AFC.

The current players are under the guidance of Takao Fujiwara who have been training the boys tirelessly for the past few months. They have been placed at the Games Village and undergoing intensive training. I’m very pleased to know how serious NFABD is in developing the young players especially at a very young age. Give it another few more years, we will definitely see results especially performance wise.

Brunei Darussalam will be grouped together will Malaysia, Timor Leste, the Philippines and Myanmar.

For your info, the matches will only be 30 minutes per half with a 15 minute break. The match field will be smaller than the usual standard.

Entrance will be free and it will be played at both at the Track and Field of Hassanal Bolkiah National Sports Complex and the Berakas Sports Complex.

I’m quite excited and I can’t wait to see the boys show all the training put into the matches. Good luck.