Etisalat U-15 School Cup 3 Regional Play-Offs Start With Matches At Ibadan Centre
....As Seven Teams Vie For Tickets To Lagos National Championship
Lagos, Nigeria; October 12, 2016: The race for tickets to the Lagos national finals of the season three of the Etisalat U-15 School Cup football competition has got underway at the Ibadan Centre with several matches decided inside the main bowl of the Lekan Salami Stadium, Adamasingba and Wesley College Playing Ground, Elekuro.
Seven teams are featuring in the regional qualifiers at the Ibadan Centre. They include host Oyo, Ekiti, Ondo, Edo, Lagos, Ogun and Osun States. The eight team, Delta is yet to report to the teams’ camp.
In the opening matches for Group A played at the Wesley College, Lagos overcame their Ogun State counterparts with a 2-1 victory while host State, Oyo pipped Osun by a lone goal. In the Group B matches played insidemain bowl of the Lekan Salami Stadium, Adamasingba, Edo was awarded maximumpoints and goals after walking over theDelta team which was yet to report to Camp.
In the second group Bmatch, Ondo was drubbed 5-2 by Ekiti in a match of unequal strength after the former was allowed to field only seven players following the disqualification of nine members of the 16-player team over breach of participation rules and regulations governing the championship.
Twenty-Four state school teams will be featuring in the other regional qualifying matches to be hosted consecutively at the Ilorin Township Stadium, Ilorin, Kwara State, NnamdiAzikiweStadium, Enugu and Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna between October 18 and November 4, 2016.
It would be recalled that the maiden edition of the competition was won by Keke Senior High School, Ijaiye, Lagos while Government Secondary School, Imo emerged winners of the second edition after dispatching its counterpart, Government Model School, Bida 4-2 in the final played at the Campos Square Mini-Stadium, Lagos.
According to the Nigeria School Sports Federation (NSSF), the supervising body for school sports in the country and Championship partner, eight top teamsfrom the four centresare expected to automatically earn qualifications to the quarter finals billed to hold in Lagos in November.
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-placed team will go home with N1 million with the players pocketing extra N30,000 each while the third-place winner will have the sum of N750,000.00 for its efforts with its players receiving N20,000.00 each