Babay take on Sri Intan in Sabah Futsal League opener
KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Futsal League kicks off with the Circuit II competition at Borneo Sports Arena (BSA) in Kolombong here this weekend (Sept 16-18).
The Circuit II involves Men’s and Women’s teams from Division I who made it through at the Circuit I earlier in April and May this year.
In addition to the Division I teams, the competition will also feature a Division II competition involving Men’s and Women’s teams that failed to make it through to Division I at the earlier Circuit.
Eight men’s teams will battle in Division I. They are divided into two groups namely Group A comprising Baby Team, Sri Intan FC, Massa FC and BB FC and Group B featuring Azzuri FC, Sri Aman FC, BSN FC and Mizanis FC.
The Division I women’s event will be a five-team battle between Rascalz, Ziemal, UMS, J1R and Remix.
“There are supposed to be six teams in the Women’s Division I but Polytechnic pulled out because they are competing in the Institutes of Higher Learning (IPT) League,” said Sabah FA Futsal and Beach Soccer Committee secretary Mohd Asyraaf Fong Abdullah when contacted after the team managers’ meeting here, yesterday.
In Division II there are 24 men’s teams and seven women’s teams.
Asyraaf said the Division I Men’s tournament will be played in a single round league format. The top two teams from each group will advance to the next round.
The Women’s teams will also play in a single round league format where the top two teams will play in the final.
The Division II will be played in small groups to determine which teams make it through to the knock-out stage.
Teams will play 40-minute matches in the Men’s Division I, while it is 30 minutes matches for the women’s. Division two matches will be played for 20 minutes for both men’s and women’s teams.
Attractive cash prizes await winners including RM5,000 for the Division I men’s champion and RM2,500 for runner-up. Third and fourth place will receive RM500, while the winner of Division II will walk away with RM3,000 and runner-up RM1,500. The prize for third and fourth place teams is also RM500.
Division I Women’s champion will pocket RM3,000 and runnerup RM1,500, while third and fourth place teams will receive RM500.
For Division II women’s team the winner will receive RM1,500, runner-up RM1,000 and third and fourth place teams RM500.
Set to kick off the matches today are Babay Team and Sri Intan for Group A, while Azzuri take on Sri Aman in Group B. The Division I women’s opener will be between Rascalz and Ziemal.
Matches kick off at 8.30am.