Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Football-loving expats will be vying to lift the prestigious GulfWeekly Premiership Trophy as the popular eight-a-side league kicks-off this week for a second season.
Last year's title winners Wahooo! have changed their name to Bayer Neverlusen (cute take on German side Bayer Leverkusen) and took up Challenge Cup winners Rugby Club-AXA in a pre-season Charity Shield friendly last week at the British School of Bahrain's artificial pitch in Hamala.
Bayer's striker Chris Tricker and midfielder Dave Good grabbed a brace of goals apiece before centre forward Owen Coll notched a fifth goal in the second half for a convincing 5-2 victory. Striker Andy Hinson and midfielder Arnim Ramsey replied for Rugby Club-AXA.
Tricker said: "It was a fantastic opener for the season. It was a close first half but we managed to dominate in the end. We want to get our hands on the Premiership title again."
The Rugby Club-AXA's powerful striker Del Rodney, will be gunning for revenge when the two sides meet for serious league points tonight. He said: "We are hoping the league is as competitive and exciting as last year. We want to improve on our third place finish in the league and do well in the cup again."
The league's chairman Paul Millington added: "Last year we managed to attract a lot of football fanatics to get off their couches and come and play. We actually brought together more than 160 players for six months of competitive football and they displayed some true spirit as well as a far amount of skill. The expats of Bahrain finally have a decent football league of their own.
"This season we hope to put on a series of exciting matches and would love football fans in the community to come out and support the teams. The league has really developed a growing football following on the island."
This season kicked off with a clash between the Dilmun Club's Dilly Boys against Saar Eagles on Monday evening alongside the Royal Golf Club's Wee Monty Men (formerly known as the British School of Bahrain) versus the British Club.
The St Christopher School will be playing the Arabian Celts tonight at 7pm followed by the highly charged and much-anticipated fixture between Rugby Club- AXA and Bayer Neverlusen at 8pm.
Readers are welcome to attend the games each Monday and Wednesday starting at 7pm and 8pm at the British School of Bahrain soccer pitches.
Don't miss the reports and photographs each week in GulfWeekly's sports pages.
