Puntland President Officially Bids To Hold The Next Somali Wide Football Tournament

[Abdirazak_PTL]

 

 

Puntland president offers to host next soccer regional tournament

 

As the 18th Somali regional soccer tournament for peace and development ended successfully in the Puntlnad state on the New Year’s Eve, the president of the semi-autonomous Somali State of Puntland Dr. Abdirahman Mohamed Faroole has offered to host the big event by the end of this year.

 

During an interview at the presidential palace in Garowe over the weekend Mr. Faroole said that his semiautonomous state would like to host the Somali soccer regional tourney which is scheduled to be held some where in Somalia in mid December this year if the Somali Football Federation accepts his offer.

 

“The tournament we hosted here in Garowe last year end, was a good beginning and we are ready to host the big football event—we are kindly requesting Somali Football Federation to prefer Puntland once again” the president said during the exclusive interview at his office in Garowe.

 

“The hosting of this tournament means a lot to us, because we want to show the international community that there is another kind of recociliation which is much better than that the world has got tired of already, because football can bring people together and it is a positive sector for reconciliation and peace building in Somalia” said the president of the Puntlnad state of Somalia.

 

He said that last year his region hosted three main important congregations: the elective congress of Somali women’s association, the assembly of Somali religious men and the country’s regional football tournament for peace and development, the first of its kind to be held in Somalia for 22 years.

 

“We want to reconcile and the reunite the Somali people in a manner which is different from how the international community had faced Somalia’s reconciliation before” president Faroole said adding that hosting a football tournament for the whole Somalia was very much important.

 

How ever other big cities including the south-western city of Baidoa the former seat of transitional federal government (TFG) of Somalia are also candidates for hosting the regional soccer tournament, but according to analysts the relatively calm Puntlnad is likely to win the contest.

 

Interviewed By Shafi’i Mohyaddin Abokar (ISLOW)

 

Email:shaficiislow@yahoo.com