The Football Tournament, the fist of its kind, organized by the college under the patronage of Dr. Mohammed A. Al-Naafa, Dean of HCC and with the supervision of Dr. Basil Abdel-Gadir, Director of students Affairs, was concluded at Prince Abdul Aziz bin Mussad Stadium last Thursday 2nd of December 2004.  

The Football tournament focused on students, faculty, and staff participation which started during the holy month of Ramadan. The huge response from all participants and the community was overwhelming and left a good impression on the community. Eight teams competed for the College Football Cup.

 The faculty team was heavily defeated three times in a row in  the quarterfinals and was, therefore, eliminated from the competition. I guess they had unspoken plans to let  the students win at all occasions (ha! ha! ha!).

 After nearly a month of tough but fair competition, Al-Furssan won the Cup in the final match scoring 3-0 against Al-Zeer team – ranked No. 2 as per the finals results. The final was honored by the presence of the Dean of the college, Dr. Mohammed A. Al-Naafa accompanied by the Assistant Dean for Administrative Affairs, Dr Salah Zugail, and the Assistant Dean for Strategic, Planning and Development, Dr. Sam Al-Shazly as well as faculty members and staff. In addition, students from different sections came to support and to encourage their favorite team. A reporter from a nationally well-known newspaper was also present. Thanks are due to the student's Public Relations Club for inviting the press and looking after the guests.

Early in the first half of the game, Al-Furssan put one in the net scored by Tarek Zugadi who received a fantastic pass from Al-Eid Bander and with one time shot gave his team a 1-0 lead. In the last 15 minutes before the end of the first half, Al-Furssan scored a second goal by Kamel Murdi who had a tremendous defense in front of him, but still managed to filter in and score.

During the second half of the game, Al-Zeer augmented their strikes trying to balance the score; this has given Al-Furssan the chance to strike back and that’s when Fahad Al-Gahtani on a superb one-to-one swing got around his adversary and put the ball in the net right past the goalie. The game ended with 3 to nil. Al-Furssan ran throughout the field shouting and screaming about their victory.

The Dean handed the College Football Cup to Tarek Zugadi, Al-Furssan’s captain, and congratulated both teams for their excellent teamwork and a wonderful show.

The dean also rewarded faculty members, staff and students who participated in the tournament (see pictures below).

In closing, The Dean thanked Dr. Basil Abdel-Gadir who put a lot of heart and soul into preparing for this special event which won everyone’s respect. Students are still asking, “Is it going to happen next semester?” Well you better figure out, Dr. Basil! You did a great job with this championship. We want to thank you for putting time and effort for such a wonderful show; we had such a great time! Please let us know how we can help you in the future. We also want to thank and acknowledge the help and support of the students who were also involved in the organization of this sport event (in particular, the students' Sports Club) which helped in putting the whole thing together.  For any who are due special recognition whose name was missed, please forgive me. 

Hassan Elbadri