Point of ViewSandwich League [Archives:2000/17/Sports]

archive
April 24 2000

Abdul-Salam
Al-Sawdi

The soccer premier league has reached it finals marking the teams that will play the “Golden Square” and those which will go down to the “Wooden Square”. At this point, I could say that both groups have proved to be great failures because of several reasons. First, each team played only 14 games and this is very few to prepare the players or develop the performance of the whole team. Second, not all the teams have met each other in the league and they were rather divided into groups. Next, there was no need for the “Wooden Square” because there were no technical incentives for it to be held. Some people say that the “Wooden Square” matches add excitement to the league, however, I believe if there was no excitement in the “Golden Square” how could their be one in the “Wooden Square and after all were are not watching matches of the European League between Manchester, Real Madrid, Chelsea and Barcelona or even a match in the Saudi League. Besides, the system of the “Wooden Square” is unfair for the teams which come before the last in position when they meet with the last-in-rank team. The earlier would go down because they would not be prepared during the “Wooden Square” matches.
Finally, I think that with the augment of support from the Ministry and the fund to the union and clubs, there should be more activity and stronger competition instead of just making a quick sandwich league. If we do not heed this well, then we would better bed the Yemeni soccer farewells.

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