Ihub Football Club to hold friendly matches with teams from Johor, Singapore
KUCHING: A newly registered ‘ Ihub Football Club’ will hold friendly matches with Johor Bahru Chinese Football Association and Singapore Chinese Football Association on May 31 and June 1 respectively.
President Joseph Tan said the matches are to foster closer networking and sharing of experiences as the main objective. Tan said the aim of forming the club, which was actually initiated in 2013 but only registered in January this year, is to encourage more Chinese to take up football as one of their sporting games.
“Football is also a very good sport and a healthy activity. But unfortunately not many Chinese take up football here or in the country as a whole. That may be because they lack self confidence in the sport; which is why they usually go for other sports like basketball, badminton, or table tennis,” he said yesterday. Tan said sports can be a platform to promote and strengthen racial unity.
“And it is not right to adopt a mindset that a certain race can only be good at a certain game,” he added.
“To dispel such a notion, we have thus set up the football club to encourage more Chinese to play football, and we hope one day we can form a Kuching Chinese Football Association and go for bigger matches with the support from the state government.”
He said they were planning to get the support of the Youth and Sports Ministry to hold a Chinese football league in October. Currently they have 23 registered members. Seventeen will participate in the coming friendly matches. Those who are interested to become members are welcomed to call him on 019- 857 2033 or Bryan Low on 010- 539 599.
The club is open to anyone aged 18 and above. Those below 18 have to get their parents’ approval. Tan said the club holds weekly trainings with an experienced coach CN Wong.