… get N3.6mn cash prize, others
… as competition kicks off Oct. 28
The 3rd edition of the annual Edo State Secondary Schools Football Tournament is scheduled to commence on Monday, October 28 at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City the Edo State capital.
Col. Charles Asowata (Rtd.), Chairman Working Committee, Edo People Forum 2020 made this statement during a media parley on Tuesday at the Media Center of the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium.
The competition with the sole objective of enhancing grassroots football development in Edo State, aims at taking young boys and girls out of street crimes and criminality, and transforming them to become useful assets to themselves, their families and the society at large.
Edo People Forum 2020, the organisers of the 3rd Annual Edo State Secondary Schools Football Championship 2024 in collaboration with Edo State Sports Commission and Edo State Football Association also disclosed that the competition’s arrival date is October 27, while the tournament’s kick-off date is October 28 at 8:00 AM, with another media parley scheduled for October 29 at 10:00 AM and the finals will be held on Friday, November 1 at 12:00 PM
“Edo People Forum was formed in 2020, in the United States of America. Our main aim then was to support Governor Godwin Obaseki’s fulfillment of his second-term ambition. We came from the US and did our best, and today, here we are,” Asowata said.
“We got back to the United States, we met and decided that we have to use sports as a driving force to accomplish our aim. We looked at the various sports in Edo State, we narrowed our selection to football because we discovered that there are lots of our young boys and girls who are highly talented and the 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 this is the third edition,” he added.
The Edo People Forum 2024 Football Tournament has a total of eight participating male and female Secondary Schools drawn from the three Senatorial Districts in Edo State.
The competing Secondary Schools include Idia College and Eyaen Secondary School (female), Edokpolor Grammar School and St. David Mixed Secondary School (male) from Edo South; Obiaza mixed Secondary School (female) and Arue Secondary School (male) from Edo Central; and St. Angela’s Girls Grammar School (female) and Oghe Community Secondary School (male) from Edo North.
According to Asowata the winner of this year’s edition male and female categories will go home with N1,000,000 and a trophy each, the second place male and female schools will smile away with N500,000 and a trophy each, while the third place male and female participants will grab N300,000 and also a trophy each. All team members and coaches of each of the winning categories will also receive certificates of participation and jerseys, alongside scholarships to distinguished players with exceptional performance.
In addition, the first 200 students to arrive at the stadium on the tournament’s finals day, Friday, November 1, will get a free branded Edo People Forum 2020 tournament T-shirt.
“I’m also happy to inform you that we took videos of some players that were outstanding in the last editions to Europe big clubs for trials but the quality was not good enough. Some of the players discovered in the tournament are now with Fortress Ladies FC, we also plan to do the same this edition,” Asowato assured.
