By: Mohamed Abu Conteh

Hada Football Club on the 27th of April 2023 was crowned Champions of both the under -13 and 17 categories in the Sierra Leone Football Association Youth Football Coordinator in Collaboration with the FANT /SL Football festival at the Murray Town field.

HADA FC Football Club under 13 started the tournament with an impressive performance from the qualifiers to the final day of the tournament with all their three matches gaining huge score lines and then won the final by a huge margin.

The first match in the qualifiers they won the match (4-1) as they defeated Johnella FC and in their second match they won by post-game penalties (3-0) nil against Young Doctors and in the final, they face P.B.K FC and defeated them by (4-3) on penalties.

The U-17 side defeated the FC Kallon U-17 team in the Semi-Final by (4-2) on penalties to reach the final. In the other semi-final, Star Sports Academy defeated United Eagles by a goal to nil to join HADA FC for the grand final.

The Final between HADA FC and Stars Sports played at a high pace as both teams looked forward to grabbing the first maiden edition of the Football festival the Kick-off was taken by the Vice President of Sierra Leone Football Association and the match was a goal drought though both Strikers tried to find the back of the net the goal Keepers of both sides were outstanding.

As the preparation for the Penalty Kick-off was in progress, the Management of Stars Sports refused to go for the Penalties Kick,

According to the CEO Ing. Cee of Stars Sports, the reason why his boys refused to kick the penalties”We were told that the match was going to be played for 50 minutes. 25 minutes for each half. The first half lasted for 20 minutes and we protested to the organizers that the time played was just 20 minutes. After our protests, the organizers confirmed to us that the second half was going to play for 25 minutes and even went to the referee to affirm that statement.”

He noted the rules are very clear. During the halftime break they should have communicated to both teams that because of the prevailing conditions, the match was going to play for just 15 minutes.

 “We would’ve accepted it. You can’t change the rules of the game in the middle of the game. You can’t just take unilateral decisions because you are officiating a match. The game was called off in the 14th minute of play when we were even having an attack. That is a very unprofessional decision by the referee. I will not accept that”, he said.

He added “I will not support cheating. My actions speak volumes of the fact that trophies will not bring back all the investment we are making because those trophies will take us nowhere. We went there to showcase what we are doing in our little corner and the boys made us proud”.

Alimamy Kurdish Conteh the Youth Football Coordinator thanked everyone who took the time to attend the Youth football competition.

“Your presence and support mean the world to us and helped the boys push even harder on the field. We felt inspired and motivated by your cheers and your energy, and it truly made a difference in the performance of the boys, congratulations to all teams who participated in the competition, it takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and teamwork to achieve success in sports, so everyone should be proud of their efforts. We appreciate every one of you, and we hope to continue making you proud with our future competitions. Once again, thank you so much for your unwavering support”, he stated.

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