Wa, (U/W) Sept. 7, GNA - The Upper West Regional Under-15 football team on Monday presented a trophy and a cheque of GH¢1,000.00 to the Chairman of the Regional Football Association, Alhaji Daudi Yahaya at Wa, the regional capital.

The victorious team beat their Ashanti Regional counterparts 3-2 on penalties to take the third position in the national Airtel Rising Stars competition held in August, 2011, at Accra.

The competition was organised by Airtel in collaboration with the Ghana Football Association (GFA).

The two teams went into a penalty shoot-out after scoring a goal each in the game.

Mr Abubakar Kasim, the Regional Juvenile Football Committee Chairman presented the trophy and the cheque to the RFA Chairman on behalf of the team.

He said 18 players were sent to represent the Region in the competition but seven of them were disqualified during the screening thus leaving them with only 11 players without a single substitute.

The Chairman said the team was drawn in Group C alongside Eastern Region and the second team of the Greater Accra Region.

Mr Kasim said the team convincingly beat Eastern Region 2-0 in their first match and qualified straight for the second stage of the competition after the disqualification of the Greater Accra team for fielding of an unqualified player.

He said the team then met the Upper East Region team in the next stage of the competition but lost 0-1 to the Bolgatanga based team and therefore had to compete for the third position, and this, they did by beating the Ashanti Regional team on penalties.

Alhaji Yahaya congratulated the team for placing third in the competition.

He also thanked Airtel for their commitment to raising young talents through such competitions and appealed to them to increase the support in order to raise more juvenile talents across the country.

The RFA Chairman regretted that if the screening had not affected the team, they could have emerged first or second in the competition and assured them of the RFA's continued support.

Mr Ibrahim Mohammed Polo, the Regional Football Development coach, appealed to the GFA and the RFA to train more Juvenile Coaches in the Region to handle the Juvenile Football Clubs in order to make them effective.

Abdul-Rafic Saani from the Upper West Region was adjudged the Goal King winner for scoring two goals in the competition and was awarded with a brown new mobile phone as his prize at the end of the competition,.

Meanwhile, Saani's team mate, Azeed Nurideen is among the four best players of the tournament selected to go to South Africa.