QFA kick-starts Asian communities football tourney

Singapore team pose for a group photo.

By Sports Reporter/Doha

The inaugural Asian Football Tournament kicked-off on Friday, which was attended by all the six participating teams and witnessed by the Ambassadors from Malaysia and Indonesia and Diplomats from Japan, South Korea and Singapore.

The families and friends from the participating teams also attended in aim to support their team.

The first game saw Japan taking on Indonesia Al Khor Community team with the Japanese eventually winning 4-1 with Hajime Kuroda scoring all the 4 goals. In the 2nd game, it was a traditional rivalry between Malaysia and Indonesia PERSIQA (Indonesia Football Association in Qatar) team.

True to its competitive spirit between the two sides, the closely-fought game ended in an exciting 3-3 draw.

 The next game will be on this Friday, 19th April with South Korea taking on Malaysia at 6pm which will then be followed by Singapore taking on impressive Japan at 8pm. The first and second teams in each group will meet each other in the semi-finals with the final and prize-presentation ceremony on Friday, 10th May.

 This idea for an Asian tournament was mooted by few of the key team officials who had actually arranged for friendly games to be played amongst each other.

The idea is also to promote community bonding as each game would also see the players bringing their families and friends to support.  With support and partnership with QFA, this Asian Football tournament is able to promote community outreach programme and will include the other international expatriate communities for next year’s tournament.

BELOW: Diplomats from Singapore, Japan and Indonesia at the tournament.