Rio Cricket Associação Atlética was founded on August 15th 1897 in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Shepherded by George E. Cox and Basil Freeland, British citizens and descendents who lived in Rio de Janeiro at that time decided to create a space where they could play cricket and tennis. After all these years, the club has kept the pillars from its founders and modernized itself.
Football has been one of the main sports practiced by Rio Cricket’s members. As a matter of fact, the club has formed some prestigious professional Brazilian footballers such as Leonardo Araujo, Daniel Cortes and Flavio Pinto.
Some other important highlights in the history of Rio Cricket are: it held the 1st soccer football match of the State of Rio de Janeiro in 1901, the 3rd official football match of Brazil, it had the 1st tennis court of Brazil and participated in the Rio de Janeiro tournament from 1906-1915.
The founders adopted the colors green and yellow as the ones for its flag paying homage to Brazil, the country that has generously welcomed them and the new members of the club.
The club plays across three competitions in Singapore’s domestic leagues and is currently top of all three. SFC’s playing squad comprises of a number ex
Singaporean internationals, and former professional as well as semi professional expatriate players.
Yau Yee League Masters return for a second straight year after a run that took them to the Cup semi-finals last time around. A second-place finish in their group behind Wallsend Boys Club, following wins over playonPROS and HKFC Chairman’s select and a draw with KCC Veterans, took the Yau Yee League Masters into the semi-finals, where they were eliminated by eventual champions Citi All Stars.
The run to the last four followed on from their success in the final of the Plate competition 12 months earlier, when they defeated KCC Veterans after another strong campaign, which saw them hand Citi All Stars their only defeat of the competition when the teams met in the group phase.
A third place finish in the group set up the meeting with KCC Veterans in the Plate final and, after a goalless encounter, Yau Yee League Masters won the competition in a penalty shootout. The Yau Yee League is Hong Kong’s top amateur league and their representative team in the Masters tournament features many of the best senior players from the competition.
Before last year, previous best performances had come in 2009 and 2010, when Yau Yee League Masters reached back-to-back plate finals.