THE Royal Selangor Club today launched a welfare fund for the 1972 Olympic football team in conjunction with the 19th RSC-Tiger International Soccer 7s and 17th RSC-Milo Under-12 International Soccer 7s 2019.Present at the launch were Malaysian football legends and members of the invincible 1972 Olympic football team, namely Datuk Soh Chin Aun and Rahim Abdullah. Also present were Datuk Santokh Singh and Datuk Shukor Salleh, members of the Malaysian football team that qualified for the 1980 Moscow Olympics and Datuk N. Thanabalan whose record of scoring three goals in a Malaysia Cup final in 1968 still stands after 51 years.

“We are very proud to announce this welfare fund that will be managed for a year, in collaboration with the Ex-State and Ex-National Footballers’ Association Malaysia,” said Sylvester Devaraj Anthony, president of RSC.

“We are very touched by this initiative and wish to thank RSC for seeing beyond the football tournament. Indeed, it is a noble deed for our 1972 heroes, some of whom are in dire need of help,” said Soh Chin Aun, president of the Ex-State and Ex-National Footballers’ Association Malaysia.

According to Sylvester, this year’s tournament will be dedicated to the heroes of the 1972 Malaysian football squad. He said the young and old should be aware of the plight of these footballers and do their part to assist them.

“These players have brought glory to the nation and they deserve to be recognised,” said Sylvester.
This international tournament has been organised successfully without a break since 2001 and has seen the participation of teams from Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Korea, Maldives, Netherlands, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

The tournament’s primary objective is to foster fellowship through football among the young and old, including family, friends and supporters who do not fail to attend this fellowship every year.

The tournament will consist three categories – the Under-12, Masters (40 years and above) and Grand Masters (50 years and above). This year there will be a total of 16 teams in the Under-12 category, 12 teams in the Masters and 14 teams in the Grand Masters.

The tournament will be held at the Royal Selangor Club Sports Annexe at Bukit Kiara on Aug 3-4. The senior tournaments are sponsored by Tiger while the Under-12 is sponsored by Milo.

All football loving fans are urged to join the fun and excitement at this two-day tournament which starts at 8.30am and finishes at 5.00pm on both days.