Announcing this at media briefing to herald the coming on board of the grassroots soccer fiesta in Abuja, the competition’s National Coordinator, Honourable Ned Nwoko said the preliminary matches would start in the second week of August this year.
According to the former member of the House of Representatives, while the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) will be fully involved in mobilising for the competition, the organizing committee, with John Fashanu as consultant will take charge of the technical planning and organization of the soccer competition.
The decision to float the competition, Nwoko said is borne out of the desire to raise footballers that will become national team materials, as well as make them useful members of the society.
He informed that each ward in the country is expected to produce a football team that would compete for honours for the Chairman’s Cup at the local government level, while the local government champions would vie for honours at the senatorial zonal level.
After the senatorial zonal competition, Nwoko stated that six teams, made up of two from each senatorial zone will battle for the Governor’s Cup at the state level where the winners and runners-up will compete at the zonal level for a place in the President Cup at the national level.
Nwoko added that the national champions will be entitled to series of friendly matches in foreign countries to expose the players to top flight football, as well as play a selected team of the best players in the tournament, in addition to taking home material and financial prizes.
