The Director of Grassroots sports development, Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports, Dr Ademola Are has declared that the revived Principal’s Cup is aimed at developing young athletes for podium success for Nigeria.
He however bemoaned the absence of sporting infrastructures in most of the secondary schools in the country in a chat with journalists.
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“The principal’s cup is all about the revival of grassroots sports in the country and this was brought by the sports minister who found it necessary that we should go back to the grassroots.
“It is the foundation of podium success in the country in the nearest future. It is not the usual principal’s cup as this will involve other sports so as to give other children the opportunity to be involved apart from football.
“The children need to be exposed to other sports such as boxing, table tennis, badminton and athletics. But because of the absence of sporting infrastructure in most schools, we are dropping boxing and badminton in this first edition. Also, because of COVID-19, we had to limit the number of schools and children.
“The state finals will be starting on the 8th of March and will end on the 12th of March with the winners moving to the zonal finals. The winners of the zones will move to Abuja for the finals from 1st April to 5th April,” he said.
The revival of the Principal’s Cup is one of the cardinal programmes of the Minister of Youth and Sports Development Mr Sunday Dare aimed at the re-invigoration of schools and grassroots sports development, enhance talent discovery and grooming of young talents in the country.
