Somalias Regional Soccer Tourney to Be Held Next Month

The Somali Football Federation and the northeastern semiautonomous region of Puntland have announced the date to hold the country's regional football tourney during a meeting between SFF leaders and officials from the region.

At the end of consecutive meetings for the past several days the Somali Football Federation president said Mahmoud Nur and the regional sports minister Mohamed Nur Hersi jointly announced at a press conference in Garowe that the regional football tournament for peace and development will kick off on the 15th of December, 2010.

The regional tournament will be hosted at the Mire Aware football stadium in the region's provincial capital of Garowe with the Somali Football Federation president Mahmoud Nur describing the move of holding this regional tournament as "tangible and historic".

"The main importance is to develop football in Somali regions and create public integration among the peoples who were disunited in the past twenty years of civil wars in Somalia" the SFF president said in the press conference late on Sunday.

"On behalf of Somali Football Federation I am very grateful to the president of Puntland, his cabinet members and the people in the region for their acceptance to host this big football event in Somalia" the president stated adding that 15 regions will take part in the tourney."