National Arohives and Roooi'ds Centre,~po- 3 0· AU G ~ ou A~. Si•19opore Gover•1nae•1.t PRESS RELEASE 09::3/80/08/24. I ,-. .SPEECH BY MR A RAHTI-1 ISHAK, SENIOR MDJISTER OF SiATE FOR FO.H!:IGN AFFAIRS ; AT THE OPENlliG .CEill,1iWNY OF THE FOUR11H LION GITX. CUP ,TOU.i1NAM8NT AT Till; NATIONAL STAD.IUM ON 24 AUGUST '80 AT 6.30 PM Football i s undoubtedly Singapor e •s -~ost po puiar outdoor sport. Although the L~ on City Cup Tournament is confined t o. teams from ·.Asi an. countries , inte;r~s t in it goes beyond Asia. Sinf?'),:po~ea.ns who have watched the first,_ second and third Lion City Cup. Tournaments . would agree that the standard and performance have shown promise. Spectator crowds of tw enty t o thi rty thousand watching unde;r...-16s play football i s something the organiser s of the tournam~nt can be proud.of, The setting and f acilities f or the t ournaJ!lent, I under- stand, are satisf actory. I ho pe that the Football .ll.ssociat jon in Sineapore will continue its good wo rk in the pr omotion of this under-16 tournament. One t ~am each from Brune i, Bahrain, China, Iraq, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia , South Kor ea and Thailand, and two t eams each from J Indonesia and Singapore are participating in the t ournament this year. I unde r s t and that in this t ournament, t eams from Britain and the Federal Republic of Germari.,y wer e invited but that they were unable t o r es pond because th~ t ournam~nt dates coincide with their school terms. At 16 years , competition i n sports nrust inevitably l eave deep impressi ons on t hose who t ake part in them. It is important that a ll participants and of f icial s mainta in the spirit of friendly rivalry e.nd at the same time do their utmos t t o pr omot e go odwill. Like in all organi sed sports and games, plnyer s nrust strive t o win but not at the expense of infringing rules and reeulations. Hitherto, in Singapor e we have not experienced serious disciplinary problems in earlier t ournaments . This i s indeed a f ine recor d. My appeal t o a ll of you i s t o keep it that way. 2 j You will go home after the tournament hopefully with pleasant memorie s of the friends you have made and friendships yr;iu.... ,.have -·y;~... .- i'l:;ltablished.,.. : ·······~ . You will probably also have gained some lmowledge of -Sfog~pore and h~r pe6p1%.~ If you hav~.· accomplished these then your participation~ the toul.'!lam~nt would ha~e. become more meanirig.ful, . The ··Fair Play Award was introduced with this .,-· . .. ,· . .. obj eGt ive ..· Th@ award· is self.:,~xp;J..anat or.y~ · . I t4erefore sincerely hope t ·~t.:th~· ;-~~~:ti~o~··f~~ -th~-·~;i;· Pla;· A~~J :;Hf be as . keen .. as for the Lion City Cup. May I ~ish each and everyone of you, official s aild . · _support~rs. an enjoyable · stay in Singapore. It .is my pleasure now to. de clare the Fourth Lion . City Cup Tou.niament op'3n., ...... ;: • f r .