The State draws of the GTBank – Principals Cup Season 6 competition held on Thursday 29th January, 2015 at the Bank’s corporate Head office. The state draws is a selection process to group all participating teams in the preliminary round of matches.
The prestigious secondary school football tournament currently in its 6th season is an annual football competition geared towards the development of grassroots football, the discovery of young football talents and fostering camaraderie amongst secondary school students. It also provides a platform for identifying, nurturing, grooming young and talented players as well as helping students work towards their dream of being world class footballers.
In the male category, 24 schools were drawn into 8 groups of three teams while 18 teams were placed into 6 groups of 3 teams in the female category. Season 5 champions; Dairy Farms, Agege will slug it out with, St. Gregory College, Obalende and Merian Community High School in Group G of the male category and female champions; will defend their title against Estate Senior Grammar School, Mushin and Ifako Comprehensive Secondary School in Group F.
The opening matches will kick off from Monday, 2nd February 2015. At the end of the tournament, cash prizes of N1,000,000, N750,000, N500,000 and N250,000 will be presented to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th place winners in the male and female categories. GTBank will also provide sports infrastructure upgrade and sporting equipment’s such as balls, goal post nets and corner flags for schools throughout the duration of the competition.
Last year’s edition of the tournament was won by Dairy Farm Senior Secondary School, Agege and Government Girls College, Agege in the male and female categories respectively and the most valuable players of the tournament, Sunday Adeoye of Dairy Farm Senior Secondary School Agege and Yetunde Fajobi of Government Girls College, were rewarded tickets to watch the 2014 Brazil World Cup. This year’s competition promises to display lots of dribbling skills, attacking finesse, accurate passing and discovery of new talents.
According to Lola Odedina; General Manager, Communication and External Affairs, “the Principals Cup Competition paves the way for youths to cultivate their sporting talents and aptitudes, while fostering and building a healthier lifestyle at a critical stage in their lives”. She enjoined the students to imbibe the spirit of fair play, hard work, and rigor, which are some of the core values of GTBank.
She also added “We witnessed such a great passion for football amongst the teams of the Season 5 tournament and I am certain that more talent will emerge as the tournament progresses this year”. She appreciated the principals from the various schools for supporting and encouraging the young talents in achieving their dreams.
The Bank also organizes an annual residential coaching programme called ‘Camp GTBank’; a football talent development vehicle to identify, train and develop outstanding players during the football season.
Guaranty Trust Bank plc is one of the few Nigerian financial institutions that have maintained a defined Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy since its inception in 1990. The Bank actively supports in-classroom and out-of-classroom educational programmes, infrastructure development, students scholarship and teachers training across Africa.