NNPC/Shell Cup states’ finals hold Tuesday

The states’ finals of the 2015 All Nigerian Secondary Schools Football Championship, also known as the NNPC/Shell Cup, will hold across the country Tuesday and Wednesday, the organisers have said.

  The championship features private and public secondary schools in all the states of the country, which are divided into nine zones where states’ champions to go slug it out to determine zonal representatives.

  According to the organisers, the states’ champions will gather for the zonal preliminaries from April 27 to May 1, with the winners going for the quarterfinals and the national finals, which will hold from May 8 to 11 and May 21 to 24 respectively. The zonal preliminaries will hold at Oshogbo, Ado Ekiti, Benin, Enugu, Yenegoa, Lokoja, Jalingo, Kebbi and Katsina.

  Speaking at a press conference in Lagos to kick off the football competition, the President of the Nigeria School Sports Federation (NSSF), Mallam Ibrahim, at the weekend disclosed that preparations were in top gear for the competition to kick off.

  He described “SPDC is a pace setter in the development of our future stars through various school sports and community development programmers; creating a platform for socio-cultural integration among Nigerian youths we appreciate their commitment and interest.”

  Mallam Mohammad enjoined ‘parents, principals, proprietors and proprietresses of schools to encourage their students to participate in this developmental programme’ by registering their schools for the championship.  

  Also speaking at the briefing, the Manager, Sustainable Development and Community Relations (SDCR), SPDC, Igo Weli, said the “NNPC/Shell Cup has created a platform for the discovery of new football talents from across secondary schools in the nooks and crannies of the 36 states in Nigeria. The championship has been so successful that it is now a permanent fixture in the Nigerian school sports calendar, earning the nickname NNPC/Shell Cup”.