Sports
THE Lagos Street Soccer championship kicked off on Sunday with stakeholders expressing high hopes that the competition will restore the lost glory of grassroots development of football.
The stakeholders spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) during the kick-off of the Lagos Street Soccer Championship at Obele Playground Lawanson, Lagos.
NAN reports that many stakeholders witnessed the kick-off of the Lagos Championship, with the chairman of Lagos Street Soccer Championship, Bolaji Yusuf, promising exciting moments of street football with several talents registered for the tournament.
“The talents are here, this Lagos Street Soccer will experience a great turnaround and we expect great things that will keep our youths busy.
“We expect to have great talents emerge from this championship, because this is the cradle of grassroots football development which we also call Futsal.
“The opening ceremony today marks the beginning of the competition which we expect will run for about 18 weeks in several centres in the state.
“The short term plan is to develop the talents and maybe in the future we might have futsal league emerge from the championship,” he said.
According to Yusuf, futsal is a developmental part of football and countries like Brazil, Spain and others, have now improved their futsal games.
“We have put structures in place to monitor these players, we have a players committee that will look into their development.
“This year, we have U-15 but from next year we will have U-10, we want to bring the age down so as to achieve the full potential of the games.
“We want to identify and nurture our talents. This is street soccer because we want to take our youths off the street for better energy,” he said.
The co-chairman of the Lagos Street Soccer and Mayoress of Ikosi LCDA, Mrs Abolanle Bada, said the championships would keep the level of vices among the youths to the lowest.
“We appreciate Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State for this opportunity, and also the Lagos State Football Association, chairman Fuad Oki, for this idea.
“This is an opportunity we have been craving for to engage our youths positively and take away vices from them through sports.
“In each Local government and LCDA we have 20 teams that will be playing and this is huge,” she said.
The Managing Director of the Lagos State Assurance Company (LASACO) Mr Rasaq Abiodun said the company was part of the football initiative because of its prospect of changing the dynamics of football development in Lagos.
“We decided to join this party because we can see its potential, we are always ready to identify with lofty ideas that will move Lagos forward.
“This sporting event is targeted at the development of the youth and engaging them positively, hence we give our own support,” he said.
Engr David Famuyiwa, Chairman, Agbado Oke Odo LCDA, also said the youth in the various communities in the LCDA were battle ready for the showpiece.
NAN reports that part of the activities at the kick-off was an exhibition match which Gbongboti FC defeated Obele Community FC by 2-0. (NAN)
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October 16, 2023 @ 6:11 GMT|
Tags: Bolaji Yusuf
