Swehli FC of Misrata wins the second Istiklal Football Tournament

By Sami Zaptia.

Tripoli, 26 December:

Misrata’s Swehli Footbal Club won the second Istiklal (independence) football tournament held in Tripoli 22-24 December.

The tournament . . .[restrict]held for the second year running was held at the Ittihad football club in Tripoli to mark the 61^st anniversary of Libya’s declaration of independence on 24^th December 1951.

The tournament included four teams, Ittihad, the hosts, from Tripoli, Swehli from Misrata, al-Hilal from Benghazi and Olympic from Zawia.

Swehli beat Ittihad 1-0 to be the overall tournament winners, but the spirit of this tournament was about the taking part and that with Libya and Libyans gaining their freedom and independence, all Libyans from all the parts of Libya were considered winners.

To this end, all the four teams were awarded a cup each.

For the record, Olympic were second, Ittihad third and Hilal fourth. Swehli player Mohamed Ghwell was named both the player of the tournament and top scorer. [/restrict]