OAU, Uniben, six others battle for HIFL semifinal slots

The Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Giants will meet University of Benin (Uniben) Royals today in what appears the star match of the quarterfinals of the on-going Higher Institutions Football League (HIFL). It will hold on the home ground of the Benin warlords.

The Benin clash is the first leg of the quarterfinals in the competition, which has brought Nigerian universities’ best footballers together in a competitive environment.

According to the fixtures, fans in Calabar will also have the opportunity of watching the game between the host, UNICAL Malabites and Delta State University (DELSU) Titans, while UNIJOS Highlanders will host University of Agriculture, Makurdi (Tillers).

The last quarterfinal game will hold tomorrow in Sokoto with the Usman Dan Fodio (UDU) Sultans hosting UNILORIN Warriors.The second leg of the quarterfinal games has been scheduled for September 19, with all the teams playing away this midweek hosting their opponents at home.According to the league’s Technical Coordinator, Mohammed Ibrahim, the technical committee will soon meet to agree on a venue for the final four.

“We have been having a wonderful competition so far and very happy with the performance of all the teams participating in the league,” he said.“This is the first edition of the competition and hopefully we can move on from the lessons learnt so far this year.We are looking at playing the final four in Lagos but we are yet to arrive at a conclusion. We want to give the sponsors value for their support by coming up with an elaborate semifinal game.A total of 16 teams started the competition with eight already eliminated.