JEDDAH, 1 March 2007 — The Saudi Special Needs Football Team were honored at a ceremony on Tuesday at the King Fahd Cultural Center in Riyadh nearly four months after winning the 4th Football World Cup for People with Disabilities in Leverkusen, Germany. More than SR4 million in donations and awards were raised for the team during the function.
Prince Sultan ibn Fahd, president at the Saudi Youth Welfare and his deputy Prince Nawaf ibn Faisal, attended the ceremony sponsored by Mobily in cooperation with the Youth Welfare and the Saudi Federation for Special Needs.
The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has ordered five clubs be established for the athletes with special needs. King Abdullah also donated SR 500,000 as seed money for each one of these clubs annually.
The event featured a documentary on the achievements and the development of the federation for the athletes with special needs.
According to Al-Eqtisadiyah daily, Abdulaziz Al-Khalid, technical team manager, lamented the fact that businessmen did not react as expected after the team had come back from Germany.
“It has been four months and maybe they were busy but the event would be a great time to show appreciation bearing in mind that Holland athletes were promised one million dollar each if they got the cup,” he told the daily before the event. These athletes wanted to show the world that despite their special needs, they were capable of making their country proud. They suffered from low income but that did not stop them from achieving their goals.
Some worked as taxi drivers and others were unemployed. Prince Sultan donated SR500,000 during the ceremony, Prince Nawaf another SR500,000, Prince Faisal ibn Salman, chairman of the Saudi Research and Marketing Group, donated SR300,000 and Prince Faisal ibn Abdulmajeed SR350,000. Prince Turki ibn Talal donated SR150,000, Abdulhakeem ibn Musaid SR 90, 000, Prince Al-Waleed ibn Talal 22 cars, Al-Zamil Group SR1 million, Sabic SR550,000, Aramco SR 150, 000 and Salih Kamil SR200,000.
Moreover, Khalid Al-Baltan offered SR100,000, Abdullah Al-Mugairin SR100,000, Turki Al-Mishaigih, SR20,000, Saudi Fransi Bank SR50,000, Al-Riyadh Bank SR50,000, Bin Saidan Group SR44,000, Al-Minajim Group SR30,000, Asael SR30, 000, Mohammed ibn Saidaan SR20,000, while Saudi Research and Publishing Company offered free subscription to all its publications. Mohammed Aba Al-Khail gave SR 5, 000, an anonymous donor SR22,000, Mohammed Al-Oraifi SR5,000, Al-Ghaith Group for Travel and Tourism SR 50, 000 and Hatrik SR50,000.
Al-Mashalih Al-Malakiyah offered a free a royal mishlah to team members for them to wear over their white thobes when getting married and Muslim ibn Ataa Establishment presented the athletes with trophies and awards.
