… as Edo FA partners YFDL to drive youth football games
… recently concluded innovative, successful, screening exercises
… information gathered to create a database for youth football players, related activities
Consecutively for two weekends of 6 and 7, and 13 and 14 July 2024, the Youth Football Development League Association and the Edo State Football Association (Edo FA) embarked on screening exercises of the players of over 20 youth football teams to produce eligible players that would be participating in the upcoming Under-13 and Under -16 league games in Edo State.
The league games which are intended to be played throughout the entire State, will first commence in Benin City as a pilot initiative.
According to the Chairman of Grassroots Youth Football Development League (YFDL), Alexander Ogie Amu, who currently resides in the United States of America, “My involvement in youth football competitions before leaving the shores of Nigeria, reminds me of how such competitions had our young minds engaged and away from harmful ventures, and some of us followed it up to become worthy football icons.
“I feel worried about the current seeming absence of well-coordinated and sustainable grassroots football development initiatives that should engage the youths in competitive football games which platforms such as secondary schools’ junior football teams competitions, principals’ cup and Crystal Cup sponsored by Bendel Brewery, provided in the 70s and early 80s,” he added.
For Alexander and the other board members of the Youth Football Development League which is composed of Etinosa Onaiwu – Secretary, Augustine Iredia – Finance, Osabuohien Ogiemwenken – Treasurer, Kingsley Ogbeide-Ihama – Public Affairs, Osagie Irabor -Welfare, Wahab Osaretin – Audit, Fuludu Edema – Coaching Education and Training, and late Godwin Izilein -Technical Adviser, the passion driving the initiative is fueled by the need to ‘give back’ to the society in order to promote enduring legacies that can provide meaningful livelihood for the youth while grooming their character and skills for better future.
Kingsley Ogbeide-Ihama in charge of public affairs relations, said, “You can see that such much efforts have been put into the screening process in ensuring that transparency is instituted to forestall unfortunate incidences of disqualifications of our players during age group competitions outside of Edo State. This is bound to set the right foundation towards a reawakening and indeed better image for our football management practices.”
Ogbeide-Ihama further expressed, “The most encouraging aspect is that the young lads can glean and be encouraged by the stories of so many Nigeria icons, who reached international global sporting arenas with an esteemed reckoning for those, who went through their formative football careers from Nigeria.
“It is our dream to properly institute the process of grooming more football icons for Edo State and indeed Nigeria. We intend to go very deep into the interior of our communities to propagate football talent and therefore call on well-meaning individuals desirous of steering our youths away from the path of unwholesome vices to support the grassroots youth football development league.”
Ogbeide-Ihama concluded by saying, “So far, the level of support of the initiative is encouraging, but we intend to make all communities to be involved in the league competitions. This calls for more individuals that are community-minded, especially the politicians and those in the diaspora to support the lofty initiative which information can be sourced at https://www.grassrootsyouthfootball.com.”
