JEDDAH, 12 April — FBA president Gil Manese and tournament commissioner Hernan Huerto announced in their last meeting with the 24 participating teams of the 6th Seiko-13th FBA Basketball Tournament that the opening ceremony will finally be held on April 19 at the Sheraton Compound Basketball Court. Originally set to start last March 29, the cagefest was moved to a later date to give way to the awarding ceremony of AFTPA (Tennis Tournament) which is also being sponsored principally by Seiko, the principal sponsor of the 13th FBA cagefest through Abdulrahman Al-Hussaini and Hussam Salahi, president and sales & marketing manager respectively of Al-Hussaini & Co., (distributor of SEIKO watches in Saudi Arabia), tournament chairman Lito Martin said.
Expected to grace the opening ceremony are officials of the Philippine Consulate in Jeddah, prominent community leaders from KASAPI, UBC, UMEA and other associations likewise representatives of sponsoring companies likely Abdulrahman Al-Hussaini, Hussam S. Salahi and Mohamed Ali Taleb of Seiko. The ceremony will begin with the parade of all participating teams in their splendid uniforms and beautiful muses to be coupled with some song numbers and short messages from expected guests. Three games will be played in the first day of the event.
Several companies have confirmed their support in the forthcoming tournament are Al-Rabie Saudi Dairy Co. Ltd. (PULZ Athletics Drink) with the help of Hamdi Hisam Uddin Usmani (Merchandising Manager), Sabil Al-Khair Services & Marketing Co. Ltd (Distributor of Completa Coffee Creamer & Rainbow Milk) represented by Fuzail Ahmed (National Key Account Manager), METITO Arabia Industries, Sigma Paints through the kindness of Paul Kersey (Sales Manager) and Dannie Quiambao (Retail Sales Executive), United Technology Products Co. Ltd. (UTPC) distributor of Dora & Toshiba, through Naseer Usmani (General Manager) and Asem Y. Hurani (Marketing Manager), ANB Telemoney (Samir Mustapha & Manolo Carandang), Royal Brunei (Yousef Ali Javed - Country Manager), Giordano Fashions (M.A.K. Jeelani), Jizan Marad (Abdillah J. Bawazeer) of Panther Energy Drink, Police Sunglasses of Bugshan Est. (Tawfiq Shahbal), SkyFreight Forwarders (Emy De Guzman), Pepsi-Cola Bugshan, Kwality Ice Cream, Reebok Shoes, Internet at Kape (Ronald Mangua), CMS - Calson Management Services (Bert Nulud), Camel Cargoes (Allan Sarzosa), Al-Amoudi Cargo (Jun Astilla) and Sports World Sportswear (SWS) of Gil Manese.
The confirmed participating teams are as follows: Inter-Company Bona fide Division (Strong Teams) - Al- Majal Service Master (Ken Bautista), Hanco Maintenance (Brown Douglas), Saudi Oger Ltd.(Mario Basilio), NAI-Juffali (Rene Mactal), Al-Tayar Plastic Co. (Fahad Al Khutaify), El Khereiji Co. (Ernesto Tata Halili), Westin Hotel (Vitorio Terzini), SEIKO - Al Badr Hotel and Naghi-Hyundai (Jojo Esquivias) Inter-Company Bona fide (Weak Teams) - Marhaba Supermarket (Yahya Attiyath), SBG - RPD (Anwar Hafez), Southern Can Making Company (Philipp Panell), Jeddah Cable (Saleh Madhoun), BLO - M. Binladen (Lody Celestial), Ultra Services (Darwin Sia), King Faisal Naval Base (Commodore Mahir Al-Johaini), Alwan (Anwar Amer Alwan), Zuhair Fayez (Abdul Birung), SAMI Rock Co. (Ahmad Abdulla) and Saudi Diyar Consultants (Wassim Labadidi). Inter-Commercial Non Rated (Reinforced) - Jama - (Lays Snack Foods) Chris Rimorin, Kodak Express (Zakariya Ahmed), King Faisal Specialist Hospital (Mila Saballe & Alvin Bautista), Green Farms (Watani) - Sammy Lomboy), Erfan & Bagedo Hospital (Ademar Suson) and SADAFCO. Gil Manese explained to the team coaches and team managers of the tournament that rules will be strictly followed to assure the success of the tournament and that only a maximum of 8 teams in each division or 24 teams in all will be allowed to join the tournament.
Priority will be given to the teams who fully complied with the requirements, Manese stressed. Prizes at stake and awaiting the result of the tournament are huge trophies, valuable items for both team and individual awardees. As an incentive, three group champions will be given the privilege to avail of the 50% discount in the second tournament of FBA this year 2002, commissioner Hernan Huerto said.
