Over 1,200 young footballers will feature in the 19th RSC tournament
Young footballers will compete in the upcoming 19th edition of the Royal Selangor Club (RSC).
Datuk Chu Ah Nge International Junior Soccer Tournament slated for today and ends on Dec 7 at the grounds of the RSC Bukit Kiara Annexe. This year’s tournament will also feature teams from Singapore, Maldives, Indonesia, Nepal and Malaysia, said organising committee chairman Datuk Gerald Rakish Kumar.
“This tournament, which is specifically catered for the development of grassroots soccer, will have participating teams, clubs and soccer academies competing with five team groups, namely the under-8s, under-10s, under-12s, under-14s and under-16s, with the Datuk Chu Ah Nge Challenge Trophy being presented to the team with the highest cumulative points at the end of the tournament,” he told a press conference at RSC in Bukit Kiara on Wednesday. Also present was Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) Datuk Dollah Salleh and former national player Datuk Santokh Singh.
Gerald said as an added incentive, all winners in the cup category of the RSC will be given free entry to the famed JSSL Singapore Professional Academy 7s, which will be held in April 2026. “To accommodate the requests from teams for a longer playing time, the playing time for each match will be set at eight minutes. Due to the increase in play time, the tournament will run over three days and there will be matches to be played at night under the spotlight.”
The tournament, which was initially launched in 2005, was seen as an opportunity to provide a competitive environment for all teams in the RSC development programme, but it has grown rapidly and has now become an international competition. Meanwhile, Dollah, who is also the former national’s team head coach, said it is pertinent for youngsters to play international football at young age to aid their development.
He added that Malaysia needs the right person to steer local football development, noting the return of Datuk Ong Kim Swee as a key figure in revitalising grassroots programmes nationwide. Ong is expected to begin his duty as technical director at the Akademi Mokhtar Dahari on Jan 1, to ensure Malaysia does not lose talented players through poor follow-up or inadequate development planning.
