President H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan yesterday received at the Al-Bateen Palace members of the national Under 17 and Under 19 youth teams and congratulated them for their superb achievements of qualifying to the youth world cup finals to be held in Nigeria and Egypt respectively next year.
Deputy Prime Minister, Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a number of sheikhs and officials were present at the reception.
The national Under 19 youth team put up a splendid performance to win the Asian Cup Championship which ended last weekend in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, to book a place in the World U20 Youth Championship, slated for Egypt in 2009, while the national Under 17, earlier last week also qualified to the World U17 Youth Championship finals, slated for Nigeria in 2009.
Commending the teams for making the country proud, Sheikh Khalifa said the achievement reflects the ability of the national youth to shoulder their responsibilities well and to make the country proud on the international arena.
The UAE President affirmed the country's commitment to continue to work harder for the improvement of all the various sports and to build a sporting youth fully equipped with high sports discipline and spirit. He said a good sport nurtures the mind and creates a well-cultured generation that hold the reputation of their country and people at heart and place them first before anything else.
Sheikh Khalifa ordered that each player of the Under 19 youth team be gifted an amount of Dh500,000, and Dh300,000 for each of the members of the national Under 17 youth team, in appreciation of their great efforts and for making the nation proud. – Emirates News Agency, WAM
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