A sport is one of the best mechanisms to nurture a healthy culture amongst the children and youths of the nation.
A sport is one of the best mechanisms to nurture a healthy culture amongst the children and youths of the nation.
In an effort to create a nation that practices sports culture amongst the young generation, various parties, be it the government or corporate, have came forward to play their respective parts with an aim to make sports a culture.
This time, CIMB Aviva Assurance Berhad does not want to be left behind in rising up to the challenge when for the first time we organized the CIMB Aviva Futsal for Kids 2008 tournament together with a local radio station, SuriaFM, recently.
The event took place in Ampang Sports Planet, the Futsal tournament clearly achieved its objective to give birth to a new generation that practices a healthy lifestyle when over 70 teams participated in the tournament which was opened to two categories, under-12 and under-15 years old.
In fact, the tournament which was officiated by the chief director of the National Sports Institute, Datuk Dr Ramlan Abd Aziz, not only successfully attracted Futsal fans in Kuala Lumpur, but also children from elsewhere like Perak and Johor also came to support the cause.
More interestingly, the tournament was also participated by teams comprising of all-girl players who refused to be left out in showing off their skills.
According to CIMB Aviva Assurance Berhad's director of business development, Encik Muhd Fikri Mohd Rawi, the main objective of this tournament is to give exposure to the kids on the importance of sports and at the same time to nurture a healthy culture amongst the young generation from the beginning.
"The main objective of us organizing this tournament is to nurture healthy lifestyle amongst the young generation with hopes that it becomes their life culture," said Encik Fikri.
"We at CIMB Aviva are definitely proud to have succeeded in attracting the young children to make Futsal or sports in general as their choice of activity for them to fill up their free time.
"Who knows, maybe there are among these children who will be a professional Futsal player one day and will make the nation proud internationally," he added.
Meanwhile, senior executive officer of SuriaFM, Roslinda Abd Majid clarified that the tournament has managed to gather a lot of kid players from all over the nation to come forward to show off their skills and hidden talents.
"After this tournament was announced through SuriaFM radio station, we received a lot of calls from Futsal teams that wanted to participate in this tournament.
"This shows that Futsal is a popular sport in our country and this is something positive.
"We want to take this opportunity to embed sports and teamwork spirit amongst the children and youths. I think our effort with CIMB Aviva has successfully achieved its objective," she said.
Other than nurturing sports culture, tournaments like this are also seen as being able to strengthen the relationship between parents and their children other than providing an opportunity for them to fill their free time together during the weekend.
Clearly, the players' performances have made their parents proud with play style of their own.
In fact there were also players who took the opportunity to show off their skills which were quite fascinating and at the same time proved that tournaments like this are able to polish and unleash new talents from the root level.
Nevertheless, apart from having fun, winning prizes that are quite substantial also became a cause worth waiting for to the teams in competition.
Other than nurturing the spirit of sports, this tournament also emphasizes discipline.
The participants not only had fun playing Futsal but were also educated about the Futsal game.
They not only played in the arena but were also informed of the league and rules and regulations of the game.
It was done to ensure that the participants know Futsal as a whole, not only know how to play it.
According to Encik Fikri, if we just organize the tournament without educating the children, it will not achieve its entire objective.
He said, the participants must be exposed to all aspects and not only be given the opportunity to play.
"They have to understand a certain game as a whole especially in the aspects of rules and regulations, equipments, self discipline and about the spirit of sports.
"This is an important element in unleashing a charismatic sports person," he said.
He also added, to succeed, element like this needs to be embedded from the beginning so that these children will be more knowledgeable about a certain game that they play.
At the tournament, Pasak FC team became the champion for under 12 category bringing home a cash prize of RM1,500 and medals meanwhile Jelatek FC (second place) got a cash prize of RM700 and Sentul FC who won third place brought home RM500.
KFSP FC was the champion for under 15 category winning them a cash prize of RM1,500 followed by Bega Ballerz FC at the second place (RM700) and RFP FC at third place (RM500).
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Issued by: CIMB Aviva Assurance Berhad (formerly known as Commerce Life Assurance Berhad)
For enquiries and information, please contact:
Monashalyza Mohd Kassim
Telephone: (017) 650 6787
E-mail: monashalyza@cimbaviva.com
Notes to editors:
About the CIMB Aviva joint venture
The CIMB Aviva life insurance & Takaful joint venture was legally formalized on 2 July 2007. The JV is a collaboration of Malaysia's 2nd largest financial institution, CIMB Group and the world's 5th largest insurance group, Aviva Plc. The collaboration combines the CIMB Group's distribution reach, treasury capabilities and customer base with Aviva's experience and expertise in operational efficiencies, and industry-leading insurance products.