All set for LEG Lagos football challenge

A festival of football academies called LEG Lagos Challenge is set to make its debut with the aim of creating a youth-centric, sustainable football culture in a genuine effort to revive the passionate Nigerian sporting system.

Director General of the LEG Lagos Challenge, Abdoulbaq Ladi Balogun said at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos that the project was tactically conceived to reflect the fundamentals of the game of football.

“What we are unveiling today is a dream of 12 years,” he said. “After the Super Eagles failed to qualify for Germany 2006 World Cup and several declining performances of our national teams in age grade football competitions, a frontline sports management firm, Donbalogun Sports Commerz, was saddled with the private sector-led mission to identify the challenges and proffer lasting solutions to it.”

According to him, LEG Lagos Challenge has come to fill the all-important vacuum; offering a credible platform, professional organization and encouraging corporate participation in a value addition relationship nuanced with transparency and accountability.

“Our objectives are discovery of talents of young ages, setting the stage to display natural passion and flair for footballing, engendering competitive spirits among the participants, inculcating discipline, ethics and skills into the young footballers as requisites for career development, nurturing and managing the discovered talents into stardom and creating the organized platform for productive engagements among the footballers, managers, scouts, football directors, club owners, the Football Associations and the sporting brands.”

The 10-day championship, featuring 16 teams will hold from April 2 to 8 at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, is for players of ages 18 to 23 years.

According to the organisers, among the laurels for outstanding performers include the Most Valuable Player in honour of Austin Jay Jay Okocha, highest goal scorer in honour of late Rashidi Yekini, best goalkeeper in honour of Peter Rufai, best behaved team (Fair Play) in honour of Mutiu Adepoju, best referee in honour of Linus Mba, best coach in honour of Samson Siasia and the LEG Star Team in honour of the sponsors. There are cash prizes for the winners, they added.