The president of the Federal Republic of Somalia H.E Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, presented the Historic Football Achievement Award to Somali Football Federation (SFF) president, Abdiqani Said Arab, after recently Somalia reached its first ever CECAFA event final.
SFF president also gained a full presidential praise for leading the country’s football to a tangible progress and in particularly for producing a very talented junior team who took Somalia to a CECAFA cup final for the first time in Somalia’s history and as a result the country’s president H.E Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, honored Mr. Abdiqani Said Arab with the high profile “Historic Football Achievement Award’.
“SFF did a fantastic job for taking Somalia to such level in football. I praise SFF president Abdiqani and his committee members for the historic achievement, because I know they made sacrifices to the country and had worked in a very difficult situation” Somali president H.E Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, said before presenting the award to SFF president Abdiqani Said Arab during a gathering at the state house Villa Somalia.
“The countries we defeated in the CECAFA U-17 Championship have been growing to develop for the 30 years Somalia has been undergoing insecurity and civil wars, so getting our team play in the final makes a huge sense for me as the president of the nation and for the entire Somalis” said Somali president H.E Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, who also commended FIFA for greatly assisting football development in Somalia.
“I will very closely be aware of the living situation of the national team” added Somali president H.E Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, who expressed his full satisfaction with the continuous development activities Somali Football Federation is doing in the country.
Meanwhile, Somali Football Federation president, Abdiqani Said Arab, was thankful to the president of the nation for the high level award. “Receiving this football achievement award will give me more energy and encouragement to redouble thefootball development work” said SFF president Abdiqani Said Arab, who in front of the country’s president expressed his gratitude to FIFA for making it possible for Somali football to revive and continue to grow.
“I am very happy that my dreams have come true. Developing our football from grassroots and youth levels was one of the pledges I made in my post-election address in 2014 and we have been able to produce 60 very talented boys who are now ready to represent Somalia in all youth competitions and started learning football from the very beginning, while some others are also now being trained and we expect them to be ready within a year. The SFF made such achievements with the full help from FIFA. My particular thanks are due to president Gianni Infantino for recognizing that Somalia deserves to be awarded with youth development programs for the 3rd successive year under which we produced the talented boys we now have” SFF president, Abdiqani Said Arab, explained.
“In April 2017, we had hosted CAF president Ahmed Ahmed here in Mogadishu. He encouraged us not to lose hopes and promised me that in his capacity as CAF president and FIFA vice president both football governing bodies are united in giving a particular consideration to Somalia” SFF president added.