UAE side ends supreme against teams from Belgium, Palestine, Iran, Armenia and Argentina

DUBAI: Kalba Tigers shone bright with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Zhalkeh of Iran to clinch the MFIF Mini-football 5x5 International Club Championships.

The team from Iran found it tough to contend against a Kalba Tigers side that was well served by top goalscorer Karim Hamed and best goalkeeper Abdul Aziz Alblooshi.

Organized by Minifootball Five International Federation (MFIF) in cooperation with the Dubai Sports Council at the Dubai Sports World pitches of Dubai World Trade Center (DWTC), this unique competition was part of the ‘Our Summer is Sports’ initiative launched by the Council.

The winners of the nine-team competition were crowned by His Excellency Maher Julfar, Deputy CEO of the Dubai World Trade Centre in the presence of Ali Omar, Director of the Sports Events Department at the Dubai Sports Council, and Karim Muqaddam, the tournament organizer.

The Kalba Tigers always looked sharp and focused from the start of the competition as they began with a narrow 1-0 win against Iran’s Dehyari Mahdi Abad in their opening match. They followed this up with an 8-2 thrashing of Palestinian team National Paints and then swamped Arad from Iran, 9-0 to book one of the four spots in the semi-final.

Playing against Football Technology from Argentina, the Kalba Tigers took their time to settle in before going ahead with a handsome 7-1 victory margin against the South Americans. Zhalkeh, on the other hand, secured a hard-fought 3-2 result against Salar Khosroshah.

The final proved to be an engrossing affair with Kalba Tigers trailing by an early goal. But with Karim Hamed in full flow in the attack and Abdul Aziz Alblooshi unbeatable on goal, there was no way Zhalkeh could find an equalizer against the Kalba Tigers.

Earlier, Salar Khosroshah thrashed Football Technology from Argentina 11-1 to secure the third place in the 12-team competition that concluded on September 5.

Among the best teams landing for the five-day competition were Real Brussels from Belgium, Tastan Yerevan from Armenia, Football Technology from Argentina, National Paints from Palestine, Kalba Tigers from the hosts UAE and four Iranian teams, Dehyari Mahdi Abad, Arad, Salar Khosroshah and Zhalkeh.

Mini-football has recently become very popular and is characterised by its combination of regular football and indoor football, with each team consisting of a squad of 14 players of which just five are on the pitch at a time.

Substitutions are unlimited during the course of the match that lasts for 40 minutes, divided into two halves. The idea is to play football without any stoppages. The only time the two teams stop is for a five-minute interval in-between the two halves.

The tournament was held as part of the many events and programmes included in the annual “Our Summer is Sports” initiative launched by the Dubai Sports Council with the aim of providing an opportunity for all segments of society to participate in various sports activities during the summer. This innovative brand of football was also held to introduce a novel type of sporting activity that will contribute in spreading the culture of sports among society.

This new initiative gives an outreach for varied sporting activities among all segments of society that incorporates activities on the beach, in the sea, on the snow, watersports, special sports only for women and other sporting activities held inside shopping malls.

So far, this initiative has managed to organize tournaments in basketball, tennis, table tennis, badminton, padel, cricket, skiing, snow hiking, fitness challenge, running, cycling, swimming, indoor football, sailing, rhythmic gymnastics, artistic gymnastics, yoga, e-sports, aquathlon, karting, powerlifting, boxing, wrestling, bodybuilding and jiu-jitsu.

Photo caption: Maher Julfar and Ali Omar crowning the winners of the tournament.

AWARDS

Top Goalscorer: Karim Hamed (Kalba Tigers – UAE)

Best Goalkeeper: Abdul Aziz Alblooshi (Kalba Tigers – UAE)

Best Player: Mojtaba Hassannezhad (Zhalkeh – Iran)