Saturday September 24, 2016
Somali Football Federation [SFF], has released the fixtures of the 2016 General Da’ud Cup and all event matches will be shown live on television.
According to the unveiled fixtures, 16 football clubs will be competing inthe competition which will kick off on Sunday 25th of September.
General Da’ud cup is the second most popular sporting event in Somalia after the elite National football league.
“The event will involve the eight clubs who remained in the elite national league and as well as the top eight clubs in the second division league.
This means that the four teams which finished bottom in the two leagues [two teams] from each league will be out of the competition” SFF director of communications, Shafi’i Mohyaddin Abokar, said in a media release on Friday.
This year’s General Da’ud Cup is expected to attract an increasing number of audience as it will be shown live on TV screens. “All matches of the competition will go live on television and it will be the first time that matches of this particular competition will all be shown on the screen since Somalia competitions started to go live late last year” the SFF director of communications said in his press statement on Friday.
“So far we can confirm that one local television has set up transmitting equipment at Stadium Banadir, but all other Somali language-broadcasting televisions are welcome.
We are allowing them to show the matches for free, because we want to teach Somali media and business companies about the importance that football advertisements can help promote their businesses” Mr. Abokar explained.
“I take this opportunity to thank Access Sports TV and Mogadishu Cable which is now broadcasting live the ongoing Somali youth football league for putting much efforts in promoting Somali football competitions” SFF director of communications noted.
He said that the interest for the Somali football competitions increased amongst the community since Somali football matches went live late in
2015. “In the last football season we had some of our matches shown on screens, but this football season something has changed and all matches will be watched live, although we can so far confirm one local TV, butother Somali TVs which can show the matches outside the country are nowshowing much interest” he said.“The live coverage will make it easier for Somali fans who cannot make their way to the stadium get access to watch matches while at home” SFF director of communications, Shafi’i Mohyaddin Abokar, said in his media release on Friday.
General Da’ud was the founder of Somalia’s Armed Forces and he died in 1965, but in 1972 the Somali football federation began the organization of the General Da’ud cup which was named after the late father of Somali military and is held every year in his honour.
However, the group stages of the competition will as scheduled conclude on October 28 and the Somali football federation will afterwards release the time table for those who qualified for the quarter finals.