JEDDAH: Forget the European Cup, the Red Sea Junior Cup tournament is the one that matters!
Red Sea Football club, a sports club for young footballers organised and run by Kareem Linjawe, held its own cup final in Jeddah on June 18. Played in a series of qualifying matches leading to a keenly contested final, the event was held over a period of seven weeks concluding with the final held immediately before the summer shut-down to service and repair the grass pitch.
"This is about much more than football, although that is the central reason that the kids come here," said Linjawe.
"There are not many outdoor activities that the average lad can participate in and few that give the opportunity to get involved in the nuts and bolts of organising the game."
The tournament consist of two separate cup competitions, the Junior Gold for fifth and six graders (10 and 11 years old) and the Junior Silver for third and fourth graders (8 and 9 years old).
Entrants for the teams are drawn from the Red Sea Football Club and while the teams are of mixed ability, the level of competitiveness is evenly fierce.
Linjawe said that the players had taken responsibility for organizing their own teams.
"The club did not assign players to teams but rather the boys made their own teams. This way we encouraged leadership," he commented.
The team captains all volunteered and then chose their team, organize their positions and rotated substitutions. The captains were also responsible for making sure all their players attended all matches.
This required weekly calls every Wednesday to make sure that all players were aware of the schedule. "That is a huge amount of responsibility for an eight year old, yet the fact that the whole thing happened on time and with a full complement of teams shows that, given encouragement and the occasional guiding hand, they can hack it," enthused Linjawe.
The Junior Gold Cup was won by Jeddah F.C. (team captain Hamad Linjawi) with Jeddah Gunners (team captain Ammar Batarji) snatching second chased by Jamal Al Liel (team captain Abdul Rahman Jamal Al Liel) in third. The winning team for the Junior Silver Cup was the prodigiously talented Red Devils - captained by Abdullah Bashrahil - who have yet to lose a match - who beat Team Fozan captained by Abdul Rahman Al Fozan into second place.
The hunt for third place was won by Al Ogaily United captained by Ahmad Al Ogaily and the hopefully named Ittihad, captained by Mohammad Taher. Hopes realized, Ittihad won third place.
Amu (Uncle) Kareem as he is respectfully known to the young members soon has travelled to the UK and taken a Football Association coaching course and now has a high level of competence that he shares with his club. He said that the in the beginning the main purpose of the club was simply to offer an opportunity for fun playing a safe physical team sport in congenial conditions.
"However, the by-products are extremely valuable." Now five years old the club still retains many of its original members.
Linjawi felt that apart from the physical benefits of stamina and healthy exercise the discipline of training encourages the ability to work together in a team and not necessarily be the star.
"Perhaps even more important is the ability to be a good winner," he said. "I detest it when a winning team rubs the faces of the losers in the dirt. Sure, winning is important; winning with the grace to acknowledge the other team did their best and that they should be respected for that is more so."
Awards for the tournament were: first-place team (cup and gold medals for the players), second-place team (cup and silver medals for the players), Best Player, Top Goal Scorer and Best Goal Keeper. Bronze medals were given out to the third placed teams.
Individual awards: Top Scorer- Abdul Aziz Al Shaiby and Foad Jamjoom, Best Goalkeeper- Ahmad Al Shareef and Ali Hafiz, Best Player- Abdul Rahman Fozan and Hasan Abul Jadayel.
