Educature Raajje Cup took place yesterday 02/05/09. The opening ceremony began at 10 am with the recitation of Quran. The Chief Guest, Maldivian High Commissioner Mohamed Zaki said a few words to the players and supporters at this ceremony and the rules of the tournament were explained to the crowd by one of the organizers of the tournament, Hussain Nasheed. The match commissioners in the group stages were Moosa Manik (Kuda Moosa), Hassan Manik (Former President of New Radiant), Sayyid Ali & Hussain Riyaz. Later on in the tournament, Maattey too joined the panel of match commissioners to judge some games in the quarter-finals and semi-finals. The overall tournament commissioner who supervised and advised the running of the cup was Aafathis sports journalist Ismail Shahid. 

Once the first round was over, the 16 teams that went to the second round were the best 3 teams of all the 5 groups and the best 4th team amongst the teams in the 4th place on groups A, B & C because these three groups had 6 teams while the other two groups D & E had 5 teams in total. A draw was taken to identify which two teams would be set against each other in this round.

The two teams from Singapore, MV Singa and MV Lions, who showed great promise in the group stage, were knocked out before the semi-finals along with other competitive teams like Cyber BC, Sunway PA, Team EC, Gombak Home Team, Badhalakah BU and Sunway Vortex. The two matches in the semi-finals were MV No Mercy vs. BU i-FC and Sunway MFC vs. Gombak MSC. BU i-FC and Sunway MFC went to the finals from here and Sunway MFC swept away the champions trophy and gold medals after a 2-1 win. FC No mercy won in the third-place playoff and took hold of the third place bronze medals.

Sunway MFC entered into the tournament with one player less in their team which is only 7 players. Three matches along their very important striker and the player of the tournament in the last tournament held in Malaysia BML Sunway Cup 2008, Bassam Adeel Jaleel, got badly injured in his knee and was in no shape to join his teammates any more in this tournament. From then on Sunway MFC played with just 6 players and in the final match there were no chances for substitution for Sunway MFC as one of their players got shown two yellow cards in the semi-final and quarter final match. However, Sunway MFC put in great team effort without letting these limitations affect their team work and along with luck being on their side they made through to winning the champions position.

There were two girls teams too who played in this tournament, Wild Katz and Sunway Girls. There were two matches against both these teams and the champion team was to be decided by aggregating the score for each team. Both the matches were won by Wild Katz and so they were the Champion girls team in Educature Raajje Cup 2009.

The closing ceremony was held right after the boys final match and the award winners of the day are as follows:

Fair Play Team: BU i-FC

Dream Team: 

                     Hassan Miras (Sunway MFC)

                     Ali Akhtar (FC No Mercy)

                     Hussain Sunny Umar (Sunway MFC)

                     Moosa Anwar (Gombak MSC)

                     Ahmed Shinaz (BU i-FC)

Player of the Tournament: Ahmed Shinaz (BU i-FC)

Top Scorer: Ramzee Aboobakuru (Desa STO)

Queen of the Tournament: Malaahath Zaki (Wild Katz)

Third Place: FC No Mercy

Runner-Ups: BU i-FC

Champions: Sunway MFC

Awards were handed out by the panel of match commissioners as well as the Maldivian High Commissioner Mohamed Zaki.  There was lunch time entertainment by Affan and Shihan of the 70’s Poster Band to the beats of bodu beru by players from different teams in the tournament. 

Tournament Panel of Judges

• Sayyid Ali
• Moosa Manik (kuda moosa)
• Hassan Manik
• Ismail Shahid

Raajje cup 2009 organizers welcome all teams who have participated in the tournament. We hope that you have a great tournament, have fun, and play your best! Remember to arrive to your games on time. Most importantly, we ask you to please be respectful to your opponents. Avoid trash talking and swearing. Demonstrate your abilities on the field.

Again we wish all players GOOD LUCK, and go out and play your best!

These tournament specific rules are very important and all teams must abide by them at all times. Please read carefully;

• The ball is out of play when:
  - Play has been stopped by the referees;
  - It hits cross nettings (goal line net), whether on the ground or in the air;
• The ball does NOT go out of play if the ball touches the side nettings (side line net).
• Play would not stop even when the ball hits the net hanging from above, unless

Find below results of the draw held tonight; 

• Best three teams for all groups will be qualified to the next round
• And the best 4th team amongst Group A, B and C will qualify
• Note : difference in schedule handed at the draw ceremony, Group C last three matches has been shuffled due to timing clashes.

To download tournament group stage schedule Click here

Head to our image gallery for photos from the draw ceremony.

The draw of this tournament took place Thursday evening at Subang Grand Sports Planet starting 2000hrs. But could the outcomes of this recently carried out draw of Educature Raajje Cup 2009 lead to clashes of the same blood? It seems like that most of the teams have to make their way to the top of the tournament on their own this time! Specially the teams from Bukit Jalil, Nilai, Malacca and Sunway would be under extreme pressure to tip the opponents aside in the group stages, regardless of the fact that these opponents could be from their own area of residence. Both the teams from Nilai would be set against each other in GROUP B while four teams from Sunway would compete to arrive at the top of GROUP C. Likewise, GROUP E carries both the teams participating from the area Malacca and the two teams from Bukit Jalil are in GROUP D. Hence, the teams from each of these areas would need to think less as a whole from the same area and more as individual teams in reaching out for the championship. Anything is possible at this point! These teams could be facing internal outbreaks or they could plan and prepare together to challenge the teams from other areas.