Team Sardar are the Zanzibar Football Club league champions for 2006 after a thrilling 5-4 victory over their biggest rivals Team Jessa. Team Sardar came out with all guns blazing and two goals a piece from Abbas Hasham and Hassan Syed put Team Sardar 4-0 to the good at half time. There was a late flurry of goals from Team Jessa, but it was too little too late.

Controversy marred the end of what was a good natured game when the ref’s score sheet indicated that the final score was 5-5. After confirming all the goal scorers, it seemed the ref had either made an honest mistake or was paid off by Team Jessa. The final score was actually 5-4 to Team Sardar.

With the score at 4-0 at half time it would have been easy for Team Jessa just to sit back and relax, but to their credit they kept on fighting and almost drew level. A goal from Aqil Najafi, two goals from Mehboob Ajwani and a late consolation from Asif Somji with Hassan Syed completing his hat-trick made it 5-4.

Early in the second half Team Jessa were dealt a big blow when goalkeeper Nadeem Kassam was carried off with a knee injury after clashing with Abbas Hasham. Abbas Hasham was also taken off with a head injury but was ok to come back in to the game after a little rest.

The extent of the injury to Nadeem isn’t yet known, but with the playoff’s looming there must be some concern in the Team Jessa camp.

At 5-2 Team Jessa won a penalty when Payem Zahedi was adjudged to have handled inside the box. Aqil Najafi stepped up and tried to psyche out his older brother, Munawarali Najafi, who was stood in the Team Sardar goal. Munawar must have won the battle of the minds as Aqil drilled his shot low to the left hitting the post and the rebound was cleared.

"I still do it for my fans... and Rizwan Merchant!" confirmed Aqil Najafi after the match.

In the other game of the day, Team Asaria edged Team Somji 3-2. Team Asaria took a 3-0 lead with 15 minutes to go and then made life difficult for themselves allowing Team Somji back in to the game. Team Somji had a couple of decent chances in the dying seconds to equalise, but some resolute defending ensured all three points for Team Asaria.

Last seasons golden boot winner, Azeem Amir, returned to SSA after being out for almost 4 months through injury. He was welcomed back in true ZFC style by Mazaher Ismail who clattered Azeem in to the boards after Azeem had knocked the ball past him. Mazaher picked up a yellow card for his trouble and moves himself up to the top of the disciplinary table.

A thunderous free kick from Taha Jaffer that deflected off Adam Asaria and flew in to the top corner opened the scoring after 10 minutes. The rest of the first half was pretty tight with not many clear cut opportunities to either side.

Early in the second half a bit of confusion in the Team Somji defence allowed Adam Asaria to sneak in and score from a very tight angle making it 2-0. On 35 minutes Rizwan Mechant’s cross shot deflected off Aarif “Phonzy” Fazal to give Team Asaria a 3-0 lead.

Team Somji piled the pressure on in the last 10 minutes, goals from Mohamed Imran Amirali and Abbas Pardhan made for a nail biting last 5 minutes, but Team Somji couldn’t find the net for a third time.