The first encounter of the long-awaited A Division competition brought the SIFF-Rabea Tea Champions League Football to life as star-studded Sharafia Trading Al-Zabin FC sweated to share two goals and points with ACC FC B at the Hilal Sham Stadium near Khalid Bin Waleed Street here. The league championship, organized by Saudi Indian Football Forum, is mainly sponsored by Rabea Tea and supported by Al-Abeer Medical Group, Jeddah National Hospital, TSS Advertising, Fathima Food Stuff, Gamon Group, Kathir Rice, Al-Ryan Polyclinic and Sharafiya Trading. In other matches, Rehab FC Yanbu rallied to beat Teckno-Paint United Sports Club A 2-1 in Division B, while Al-Noor International School blanked Mahd Al-Uloom International School 3-0 in the Al-Abeer Schools Champions League. Al-Noor dominated the game and took the lead in the 17th minute off a brilliant freekick by Mohammed Saif Dilair. After Mahd's Abdullah Omar missed two chances, Al Noor increased the lead through Yassir and Sultan completed the tally in the second half. Mohammed Saif Dilair was selected as the Player of the Match. In the B Division game, second half substitute Mohammed Yunus shifted the tempo of the match toward Yanbu. United began the game confidently and tested a reliable Yanbu keeper Mohammed Shafi twice. After both the teams missed chances, Jaseel headed United into 1-0 lead. Yanbu coach then brought in Yunus in the second half and he restored parity off a nice pass from Naushad Ali. Soon after a Yunus-Thahir move from the middle was capped by Rashid, handing Yanbu three valuable points. Yunus was named the Player of the Match. ACC started well in the Division A match as left wing back Hyder produced good moves with the help of Rafeeq and Emad Naser tested Al-Zabin goalkeeper Abdul Salam. Al-Zabin defense had a tough time to mark the crowd favorite Naser, who impressed with his skill and superb ball control. ACC took the lead in the second half. An overlapping Hyder passed the ball to Naser, who dribbled past two Al-Zabin defenders and goalkeeper Salam to place the ball into the net. But as Emad was marked tightly Al-Zabin took the initiative and ACC goalkeeper Subair saved the team from Shanavas and Ashiq Usman shots for a while. However, Usman soon leveled for Al-Zabin. Receiving a pass from Siraj, Usman beat the ACC defense and goalkeeper Subair to make it 1-1. Usman also won the Player of the Match award. — SG
