Caption: (L-R) Bujang Hj Japar, NFABD Futsal Standing Committee Deputy Chairman, Rosdin Hj Abd Aziz, NFABD Futsal Standing Committee Chairman, Jason Thomas, NFABD Media & Communications Officer and Qusmaini Noor Hj Rusli, Brunei Futsal League 2017 Technical Secretariat. Picture: Ak Fauzi Pg Salleh.
Ak Fauzi Pg Salleh
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
TWO Malaysian teams will be making their debut in Saturday’s Brunei Futsal League (BFL) 2017 organised by the National Football Association of Brunei Darussalam (NFABD).
It was officially revealed during the press conference at the NFABD House last night that Kuantan Rangers and Miri FA will be participating in this year’s 10-team national elite futsal league
“We are very excited to have two strong teams from Malaysia joining us in the national futsal league this year, I expect that with the inclusion of these two teams, the tournament will be more competitive this year,” said Rosdin Hj Abd Aziz, NFABD Futsal Standing Committee Chairman during the press conference last night.
“Kuantan Rangers especially is the strongest futsal team in Malaysia where they are currently the defending champions in the Malaysian futsal league, so it will be an honour to have the team to compete with the best futsal teams in the country,” he added.
The two Malaysian sides will join defending champions Kota Junior FC, Shah United FC, Arbisyam FC, MS ABDB, Riz Fiz and NFABD’s national development team in challenging for the BFL 2017 trophy. Two other local teams will be decided via qualifiers.
NFABD invited the Kuantan Rangers and Miri FA to compete in order to raise the league's standard of play and provide exposure for NFABD’s national development team - which is training for the AFC U20 Futsal Championship.
The Malaysian teams’ participation has been approved by the Football Association of Malaysia.
The tournament will be played over two rounds in a home and away format, and each team will play 18 games.
The opening ceremony on Saturday will see Kuantan Rangers take on Takaful Brunei Futsal Super League 2016 champions Kota Junior FC at the Indoor Stadium of the Hassanal Bolkiah National Sports Complex, at 8.30pm.
Games will also be played at the Multipurpose Hall of the Hassanal Bolkiah National Sports Complex.
Apart from the Malaysian teams, another new feature in this year’s league is the introduction of an online database system (www.brilyansport.com/bfl2017).
Start lists, results, match reports, fixtures, photo galleries can be found on the website, creating a more efficient and systematic method to manage the league.
