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Text and photo by Shamseer Jaleel
The Matale Football Federation conducted their district football tournament, aptly named the Matale Football League 2021, which saw Gold Moon SC crowned champions when they beat Matale Youth SC 5-4 in a penalty shootout. This took place at the Beranrd Aluvihare Stadium – Matale recently.
The scores were levels at one a piece with Mohamed Rukshan scoring for the winners, while L.N.A Rahuman scored for the valiant losers.
In the first semi-final encounter worked off last weekend, Matale Youth SC outplayed Rebels SC, winning 4-1, while in the second encounter, Gold Moon SC comprehensively beat Camaroons SC 3-0
The Man of the match award was given to M. Divakaran of Gold Moon SC, while the Emerging Player award was given to Mohamed Azam from the winning outfit. The Emerging Goalkeeper award was won by Mohamed Usman of Matale Juniors.
Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) Medical Committee Chairman Dr. Manil Fernando graced the concluding ceremony as the Chief Guest with FFSL President Anura De Silva, while the Guest of Honour was FFSL Finance Committee Chairman R. Puvanendran.
This event was conducted under the Presidency of one of the leading football players and referees in the country Haris Raifaideen, who had done yeoman service for football in the district as a player, referee and an administrator.
Speaking to Daily FT he said: “This was well received with players showing their keenness after the COVID pandemic. We will conduct this event every year. The final and all the matches saw big football-crazy fans witnessing the matches.”
