Edo Secondary School Football Championship to Kickoff Oct. 28

By Towncriernews

Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City 

The 3rd edition of Edo State Secondary Schools Football competition has kickoff on Monday, October 28, 2024 in Benin-City with eight teams in contention for the star prizes

Eight Secondary Schools have been selected from across the three senatorial districts of Edo State to participate in the competition.

The chosen schools include Obiaza mixed Secondary, Arue Secondary School in Edo Central; while in Edo South, are Idia College and Eyaen Secondary  School Benin- City just as in Edo North, St. Angelas Girls Grammar School and Oghe Community Secondary School were selected

The Chairman of the coordinating committee Col.Charles Asowata (rtd), during a press conference in Benin disclosed that the competition will begin on October 28 and end on 1st of November, 2024 with the winners going home with N1,000,000 star prize for both categories while the runners up teams go home with N500,000 and N300,000 respectively with trophies.

According to Col. Asowata, the competition which is sponsored by the Edo Peoples Forum is aimed at catching them young and taking our young sports boys and girls out of the streets and criminality, as well as creating career opportunities for them.

He assured that the competition will not only be sustained but will get bigger, maintaining that his organisation, the Edo People’s Forum is committed to making an impact on the lives of young Edo sons and daughters as well as giving back to the society.

According to him, the finals of the competition which is in the format of Champions League Tournament of Edo Principal’s Cup will be staged at the Samuel ogbemudia stadium, Benin on November 1.

“I want to use this medium to express my profound gratitude to God for making this event possible. As you may know, Edo People Forum was formed in 2020, in the United States of America. Our main aim then was to support  Governor Godwin Obaseki’s fulfilment of his second term ambition. We came from the US and did our best today here we are.”

“Again we got back to the United States, we met and  reviewed our activities and decided that we have to use sports as a driving force to accomplish our aim for a better society.We looked at the various sports in Edo State, we narrowed our selection to football because we discovered that there a lot of our young boys and girls who are highly talented and only way we can help is to roll out the drums on how to sponsor football championship for these young boys and girls in the three senatorial zones in the State. We did the first edition and achieved tremendous results, today we are preparing for the third edition.” 

“In this year’s edition we decided to pick some schools in the three senatorial zones. The schools are Obiaza mixed Secondary, Arue Secondary School, in Edo Central, while in Edo South we have  Idia College,and Eyaen Secondary  School Benin- City. In Edo North is St. Angelas Girls Grammar School and Oghe Community Secondary School. There are total of eight schools participating in this edition 

The competition will kick off on Monday  October 28, 2024.”

“For what the participants stands to benefit he said: “We have a lot of things that the participants will benefit . For instance, the winner of this year’s edition will go home with One million and a trophy, the second runner’s up will smile away with five hundred thousand with a trophy, while the third placed team will go with N300,000(Three Hundred Thousand Naira) with a trophy.  They will also be giving certificates of participation.

The fans or spectators will not be left out in the largesse as the first two hundred students to come to the stadium on the final day will be given branded Edo People Forum T.shirts. We are planning a Scholarship for the players.

“I am also happy to inform you that we took videos of some players that were outstanding in last editions to Europe big clubs and opportunities for trials could come.

Some of the players discovered in the tournament are now with Fortress Ladies FC, we also plan to do some again in this edition.” Col. Asowata emphasised