JEDDAH, 21 November 2003 — Saudi Indian Football Forum (SIFF) will stage its ninth annual tournament at the Ministry of Education Stadium from Dec. 12. In all 18 teams will play 33 matches every weekend over a 14-week period, barring a three-week break in between.
Tournament details were given to reporters during the exchange of sponsorship documents between Sadafco and SIFF. Sadafco’s Marketing Manager Khalid Tahir and SIFF President T.P. Ahmed signed and exchanged the documents at a ceremony presided by Indian Consulate Head of Chancery S.L. Sagar at the Jeddah Trident Hotel.
Co-sponsor Air-India was represented by its Manager for Western Province S.M. Mazharullah.
Sagar said the Consulate General of India had been supporting sports and other community activities with a view to forging greater interaction between communities locally. “Our support to this annual event is a step toward this,” he said.
“We expect the SIFF-Sadafco 2003 tournament to be the biggest so far,” T.P. Ahmed said. “The MOE Stadium is the venue for the tournament for the fifth year in a row,” he said and thanked SIFF Past Presidents V. Muhammad Ali and K.P. Abdul Salam for their continuing support. He announced that Saudi referees would once again be supervising the tournament matches. “The 30,000-seat capacity stadium will surely attract a large number of spectators as they did in the past years,” he added.
“Our sponsorship of this very important tournament indicates the support and encouragement we give to sports in general and football in particular. We consider the Indian community as an important segment among local expatriates and hence we’re sponsoring the tournament for the second time,” Khalid Tahir said. “We’re always supportive of sports activities, including football at the national level.”
Mazharullah said India’s national carrier has always been in the forefront in supporting causes that benefit the local Indian expatriate community — the largest in the Kingdom.
