The President of Nigeria School Sports Federation (NSSF), Ibrahim Mohammad, has appealed to Etisalat to include female football in the next edition of the Etisalat U-15 School Cup.
He made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Thursday.
According to him, the exclusion of upcoming female footballers from the tournament is detrimental to the development of women’s football.
“I want to thank Etisalat for supporting football development from secondary school level and giving these young lads an opportunity to express their God-given talents.
“But, I want to beckon on the organisation and our other sponsors to also include female football in the tourney to give national coaches the opportunity to catch them young.
“This is because our female footballers have made the country proud, following the wonderful performances of the Super Falcons, globally,” Mohammad said.
He also called on government, corporate Nigerian orgasations and stakeholders in sports to support school sports programmes for the country to produce world beaters in various sporting events globally.
“Etisalat and our other sponsors such as Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Shell, have shown support toward grassroots sports development, I am appealing to other corporate organisations to help develop grassroots sports.”
NAN reports that the city of Lagos has gone agog following the qualification of the eight teams for the national finals of the third edition of the Etisalat U-15 School Cup.
The teams have, therefore, begun their quest for the tournament’s grand prize at the Digital Bridge Institute, Oshodi, Lagos State.
The quarter-finalists include; Socrates Secondary School, Ilorin; Sultan Bello Secondary School, Sokoto; Niger College, Benin; FOSLA Academy, Abuja.
Others are Asegun Comprehensive Secondary School, Ibadan, New Layout Secondary School, Enugu, General Hassan Usman Kastina Unity College, Bauchi and West Itam Secondary School, Itu, Akwa Ibom.
Meanwhile, the national champion of the 2016 edition will receive the Champions Trophy and a cash prize of N2 million educational award while its players will go home with N50,000 each.
The second place team will go home with N1 million with the players getting N30,000 each, while the third place winner will have N750,000 for its efforts and players receive N20,000 each. (NAN)