The National Sports Commission (NSC) has announced that the 2026 National Sports Festival, tagged Coal City Games, will hold from November 27 to December 11 this year.

Revealing the programme for the festival after the first meeting of the Main Organising Committee (MOC) yesterday in Abuja, NSC Director General, Bukola Olopade, stated that the arrival of states will be on November 25 and 26, while the opening ceremony will hold on November 27. He added that the Games will end on December 11, emphasising that the dates are all sacrosanct.

The DG said the final dates were agreed upon following a productive and fruitful meeting he had with the Governor of Enugu State, Peter Mbah.

“I must commend the Governor of Enugu State, Peter Mbah, who has shown tremendous enthusiasm in the aggression with which facilities are being built and completed for the Games. This is highly commendable.”

Olopade further stated that the Coal City Games will break and set a record of being the best sponsored and funded games in the history of the games in Nigeria.

“Let it be on record that the Enugu games, without any argument, is the best sponsored festival in history. The main sponsor, Premium Trust Bank, has made good their commitment and it is a very historic contribution to the festival.

“The last record was the Gateway Games last year in Abeokuta, which many had described as the best festival ever, but I am very optimistic that Enugu is on the verge of hosting the best well-funded and best well-organised games later this year”.

He also stated that as part of the RHINSE reform agenda of the NSC to make hosting of the festival more affordable for states, the number of sports for the Games has been reduced to 20, with 15 NSC compulsory sports while the other five are within the prerogatives of the host state.

The compulsory sports that will feature at the Coal City Games are Athletics, Para Athletics, Badminton, Para Badminton, Basketball, Wheelchair Basketball, Boxing, Cycling, Football, Judo, Gymnastics, Swimming, Table Tennis, Para Table Tennis, Tennis, Taekwondo, Mixed Martial Arts, Weight lifting, Para Power lifting and Wrestling.