Football: Tamil Murasu hosts inaugural five-a-side tournament

SINGAPORE - Goals, feints and fancy skills were on show at Tamil Murasu's inaugural five-a-side futsal tournament on Sunday (July 2).

The one-day competition held at The Arena, located at Woodleigh Park, featured 22 teams comprised of children aged 10-12.

The Young Cubs won the the S. Chandra Das Cup and received $1,200 worth of vouchers.

The event also included an exhibition match between former Singapore internationals Terry Pathmanathan and S Subramani on one team against a Singapore Parliament side that included Minister for Social and Family Development Tan Chuan-Jin, Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) Ong Ye Kung, Members of Parliament Teo Ser Luck and Pritam Singh.

The tournament, sanctioned by the Football Association of Singapore, aimed to promote sports and fitness by encouraging kids to take up futsal.

Former national captain Pathmanathan said: "This age group is very crucial and very sensitive. Many players have the talent but cannot find the opportunity to express it. These sort of tournaments help to nurture and identify their talent.

"Although Tamil Murasu is a Tamil language paper, it is good to see this tournament being inclusive and include boys of all ages."

National coach V. Sundram Moorthy added: "With more tournaments like this we can nurture more youths in this age group and hopefully they will continue with this and we will have more players to choose from for the national team."

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