Inter-District Football Tournament Final Rounds kick off today

KOTA KINABALU: Former champions Tawau and Keningau have been drawn together in the Final Rounds of the 5th Chief Minister Tan Sri Musa Haji Aman Cup Inter-District Football Tournament.

Inaugural champions Keningau (2013) and Tawau (2014) will compete in the ‘group of death’ Group A that also comprise last year’s third placing Telupid and Pitas following the tournament draw conducted yesterday.

Sandakan, the 2015 champions, will be in Group B that will also consist of Beaufort, Kota Kinabalu and Putatan.

The draw for the Final Rounds was conducted during the team managers’ meeting held at the Sabah Football Association (Safa) meeting room at Maksak Hall here yesterday.

Safa assistant secretary general Dr Mohd Farid Abdullah, who is also the tournament director, was there to chair the meeting and witness the draw.

And there will be some interesting facts from the tournament this year.

Firstly, Tawau, Keningau and Telupid are the only teams that played in the Final Rounds last year while the rest failed to get past the qualifying rounds. Only the group winners in the qualifiers advanced into the Final Rounds.

Secondly, the battle of the Wasli siblings in Group B will only spice up the tournament where Kota Kinabalu is coached by Roslan while Putatan is under Rosdin, the former Rhinos team captain.

The eldest of the participating Waslis, Rosdy is the Sabah FA Sandakan president and also team manager of Sandakan team.

The Final Rounds group matches will kick off today and continue until November 1, where the two top teams will meet in the cross-over semifinals set for November 3.

The final will take place on November 5.

The matches in the group stages will be played at the Likas Stadium, Penampang Stadium, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) field C and its synthetic field.

Meanwhile, Tawau will open their campaign in Group A against Pitas at the Penampang Stadium while Telupid will face Keningau at UMS Field C.

In Group B, Kota Kinabalu will meet Putatan at the Likas Stadium while Beaufort take on Sandakan at the UMS Synthetic field.

All the matches will start at 3:45pm.

The official kick-off will be happening at the Likas Stadium where Safa deputy president Datuk Lawrence Gimbang will officiate just before kick-off today.

The champions will receive a RM25,000 cash prize followed by RM12,500 for the runners-up, RM4,500 and RM3,500 for the third and fourth placing respectively.

For the record, Labuan who were invited to take part in Tawau last year are the defending champions but will not be around to defend their title after Safa decided to confine the competition to its district affiliates only.