Shabab held, loses hope of catching Hilal

By Mohammed Al-Kinani

JEDDAH – Al-Shabab lost hope of catching up with Zain Saudi Professional League leader Al-Hilal after playing out a goalless draw with Al-Ittifaq at the Prince Mohammed Bin Fahd Stadium Saturday.

Shabab, runner-up with 37 points, trails Hilal by 10 points. Ittifaq is seventh with 21 points and a match in hand.

In other action on the night Al-Ahli beat Al-Wehdah 2-0 and Najran beat Al-Fateh 1-0.

Shabab and Ittifaq, meanwhile, played out a dour game, which was attended by a small number of spectators.

Shabab coach brought in Brazilian midfielder Marcelo Camacho for striker Abdul Aziz Al-Sa’aran, but the change failed to bring about a change on the scoresheet.

Ittifaq’s Bulgarian coach also made a couple of changes, however, they also failed to bring the desired result.

The last 20 minutes saw both teams create a number of chances but failed to finish them.

Shabab was in action 48 hours after lifting the Prince Faisal Bin Fahd Cup.

Abdullah Al-Ostta almost gave Shabab the winning goal when his blazing shot two minutes from time hit the bar and landed in front of the goalline only to be cleared by the Ittifaq defenders.

At Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium, Al-Ahli swapped positions with Al-Wehdah after the host, Ahli, blanked Al-Wehdah 2-0.

Ahli had Wehdah defender Sulaiman Ameedo to thank for the opening goal after he headed Ahli striker Mohammed Al-Sifri’s kick into his own goal instead of heading it over the post.

Ahli scored the second through midfielder Mohammed Musa’ad, who put the Malik Mo’adh pass into the right corner of Wehdah keeper Assaf Al-Qarni 15 minutes after the break.

With one match in hand, Ahli sits fifth in the standings with 26 points.
Wehdah is sixth with 23 points, with two matches in hand.

The third match saw Najran beat its host Al-Fateh 1-0 at the Prince Abdullah Bin Jalawi Sports City.

Nigerian midfielder Mousa Sulaiman scored the only goal of the match in the 68th minute for Najran.

The win puts Najran in the 10th spot with 13 points, while Al-Fateh is 8th with 21.

New chief, members for SAFF referee committee

By Mohammed Al-Kinani

JEDDAH – Prince Sultan Bin Fahd, President of the General Presidency of Youth Welfare and Chairman of the Saudi Arabian Football Federation, reshuffled the federation’s General Referee Committee in Riyadh Friday.
Omar Al-Muhanna has been named as the chairman of the committee in place
of Abdullah Al-Nasser.

Ibrahim Al-Amr has been appointed as deputy chairman for referee affairs while Ali Al-Turaify has been given the post of deputy chairman for the referee supervision affairs. Muhanna Al-Shubaiky, Mohammed Al-Muqayteb,

Mohammed Al-Sharief and Mohammed Al-Suwayel have been named as members of the newly-shaped committee.

The changes, which aim to improve the performance of the referee committee, also included the appointment of Mohammed Sa’ad Bakhit as reporter of the committee and Mohammad Bin Awwad Fouda as the committee’s part-time consultant.

The GPYW president also thanked the former members of the committee for their efforts and wished them success in their future endeavors.

The changes came about after the former committee members were severely criticized for their handling of the referee Abdurrahman Al-Amri’s case.

Al-Amri had allowed a ‘goal’ to stand during the Shabab vs. Fateh Prince Faisal Bin Fahd Cup semifinals recently. The goal handed Shabab a 3-2 knockout win over Fateh. Shabab went on to claim the trophy beating Hilal 2-1 in the final in Riyadh Thursday.

The interesting goal four minutes into extra-time put Shabab in the final when Abdullah Al-Ostta hit the ball into Fateh’s goal after it bounced off the post on his spot kick.

The committee later claimed that the referee had heard the ball touching the keeper’s hand before Ostta put it into the goal.

Al-Shabab lifts Prince Faisal Bin Fahd Cup

By Mohammed Al-Kinani

JEDDAH – Al-Shabab succeeded in retaining Prince Faisal Bin Fahd Cup beating Al-Hilal 2-1 at the King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh Thursday.

Eissa Al-Muhayani put Hilal in front five minutes before the break. However, Abdul-Malik Al-Khaibari of Shabab leveled the score in the second half before his teammate Ali Otaif sealed the win for the White Lions. The win also secured Shabab a spot in the GCC Club Championship.

Prince Nawaf Bin Faisal Bin Fahd, Deputy President of the General Presidency of Youth Welfare, handed over the trophy to Shabab skipper Naif Al-Qadhi before giving away the gold medals to the team players. Prince Faisal also gave the winning team a cash prize of SR1 million.

Hilal players won the silver medals for their effort along with a cash prize of SR500,000.

Shabab dominated the first 20 minutes of match after which Hilal took over and also succeeded in scoring a goal five minutes before the break.

Hilal midfielder Mohammed Al-Shalhoub hit a perfectly placed kick from the corner and Muhayani headed it into the far right corner of Shabab keeper Waleed Abdullah.

Shabab equalized on an error committed by Hilal keeper when he failed to grab a cross kick and Al-Khaibari made the most of it by heading it into the Hilal goal.

Hilal coach replaced Shalhoub with Salman Al-Mua’asher after the goal in an attempt to boost his front line. This change, however, paved the way for Shabab to put more pressure on Hilal and score the winning goal.

This time it was Ali Otaif who put the ball into Hilal goal as soon as he received it in the 68th minute. The move was so sudden that Hilal defender Sultan Al-Bishi could not even make an attempt to save the goal.

Hilal coach then brought in Yasser Al-Qahtani in place of Ahmed Al-Furaidy. Qahtani, however, could not help Hilal change the result.

Shabab keeper Abdullah, however, did well to save a Hasan Khairat scorcher from inside the area to keep his team ahead. The four extra minutes went peacefully securing the win for Shabab.

Unauthorized women gym shut

By Mohammed Al-Kinani

JEDDAH – The Jeddah General Management of Health Affairs closed down a fitness club for women in one of the city’s health centers for violation of rules and for employing unqualified staff who were not under the owner’s sponsorship, said Director of Jeddah Health Affairs Dr. Sami Badawood.

Dr. Mahmoud Abdul Jawad, head of medical licenses department, said inspection of health centers will continue and violators will be punished.

Last year, some Shoura Council members had asked the General Presidency for Youth Welfare to expedite the process of establishing female-exclusive sports centers.

The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs recently closed down two unlicensed female gyms in Jeddah and one in Dammam.

At present, women gyms are allowed only inside hospitals as “health centers” supervised by the Ministry of Health. But these health centers are very expensive which only the affluent can afford. So budget health centers for women have sprung up under the guise of “beauty salons” or “studios.”

Ittihad shares goals, points with Ittifaq

By Mohammed Al-Kinani

JEDDAH – Al-Ittihad shared two goals with Al-Ittifaq in an 18th round match of the Saudi Zain Professional League at Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium Tuesday.

The draw has almost ended the champion’s hope to keep the title. In other matches, Al-Nasr defeated Al-Wehdah 2-0 while league leader Al-Hilal won over Al-Ra’id 2-1.

The Romanian striker Cristian Danalache put Ittifaq in the lead two minutes after the kickoff when he scored from the spot. However, Talal Al-Misha’al of Ittihad leveled the score from the same spot in the 89th minute.

Ittihad defender Hamad Al-Montashiri brought down Yousof Al-Salem in the box. The former was yellow carded before Danalache succeeded to score.

Ittihad missed the services of a number of its key players –Tunisian striker Amine Al-Chermiti is participating in the African nations Cup, midfielder Mohammed Noor did not take part for unknown reasons and Osama Al-Muallad is suspended.

Ittihad is still third on the standings with 33 points and one match in hand. Ittifaq is 9th with 20 points and a suspended match.

At King Abdul Aziz Sports City Al-Nasr collected three points after defeating Al-Wehdah 2-0. Skipper Husain Abdul-Ghani put his team in the lead seven minutes before the break. Taking advantage of a defender’s mistake, the Argentinean midfielder Victor Alberto Figueroa sealed Nasr win four minutes before the break. Nasr is fourth (30) with two matches in hand while Wehdah is fifth (23).

Al-Hilal won over its guest Al-Ra’id 2-1 at Prince Faisal Bin Fahd Stadium. Striker Yasser Al-Qahtani put his team in the lead seconds before the break. Midfielder Mohammed Al-Shalhoub, league top scorer with 12 goals, succeeded to score from the spot. Ra’id striker Mousa Al-Shammari headed into the goal scoring his team’s only goal.

With the conclusion of this round, Hilal is on top with 47 points (11 points ahead of Shabab). Hilal will play against Al-Hazm in the next round. If the leader succeeds to get that match’s three points, it will become the winner of the competition irrespective of other results.

Poor representation of Saudi women at leadership conference

By Mohammed Al-Kinani

MANAMA - A Bahraini minister caused a furor among some of women delegates at a conference in the city when he claimed that the reason for women not being able to become leaders is that other women refuse to work under them.

The statement was made by Dr. Majeed Al-Alawi, Bahraini Minister of Labor at the Second Annual Regional Conference held Sunday at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Manama, Bahrain.

The theme of the conference was “Women and leadership”. The conference’s panel included Najar Al-Baharna, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Mai Al-Khalifa, Minister of Culture and Information. The conference was organized by BNP Paribas.
“One of the main reasons for the lack of women in leadership positions is that most women cannot accept working under the leadership of another woman,” said Al-Alawi in his speech.

He said that religion had nothing to do with it.
“It is for cultural reasons; not due to any religious or political reasons. The government is keen to put women into the labor market. For that reason, it has decided that employing a single woman is equivalent to employing to two men in Bahrainization.”

However, Dr. Reem Badran, Vice President of the Jordan Chamber of Commerce and head of the investment committee at the Arab League, challenged the minister’s view.
“It was women who helped me in the elections for a position at the chamber,” she said.
“This meeting can help us take women to even more leadership positions, especially in the private sector. The problem is how to persuade men to give women a chance to prove themselves,” she added.

She said that Saudi women have made great strides in society.“Saudi women are highly educated and they can succeed when assigned to management positions. Many of them are running their own businesses,” she said.

However, there was poor representation of Saudi women at the event.

Amal Al-Zahrani, a member of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), who was perhaps the only Saudi female to attend the conference, told Saudi Gazette, she was shocked by the absence of Saudi women.
“Saudi women should have attended such an important event that discusses women’s issues,” she said.

She added that it was perhaps a norm for Saudi women to prefer to keep away from such meetings.
“We have held several meetings at the JCCI but their absence was noticeable. In fact, these forums and conferences are of great importance to Saudi women because of their knowledge of cultural and scientific fields,” she added.

Al-Zahrani said that she was told that a number of Saudi women would attend the conference, but she found herself alone.
“Their absence has really raised a big question mark over their demands and their contribution,” she added.

The conference was followed by various workshops that covered women in politics, education, media and business.

As for politics, participants concluded that women need to be exposed to political processes. However, lack of skills, knowledge and willingness among women to participate were all identified as obstacles.

Participants at the education workshop discussed the gap between the outcomes of universities and the labor market. They called for changes to the education system.

In another workshop that discussed women and business, the participants believed that the greatest obstacles facing women are family issues and time.

The participants at the media workshop said a committee should be formed, linked to the Gulf Cooperation Council to help women take leadership positions in various industries.