Bola Akindele U-15 Boys, Girls tourney kicks off today

The 2023 Bola Akindele Cup for U-15 Boys and Girls football competition will begin today at the Nigeria Railway Institute Football pitch, Ebute Metta, Mainland, Lagos.

The tournament, which is organised with the support of the Lagos State Grassroots Soccer Association, will see 32 teams in the boys’ category and 24 teams in the girls’ class battle for trophies and prize money set aside for the winners up to the fourth-placed teams.

According to the organisers, the winner will pocket N400,000, the first runner-up gets N300,000, second runner-up N200,000 and N100,000 for the fourth placed teams in both categories.

At the unveiling of trophies, the sponsor and Chairman of Courteville Business Solutions PLC, Dr. Adebola Akindele, stated that the championship was borne out of passion to present a platform for the youth to showcase their talent, adding that this has led to many talents who went on to play for the country’s youth levels in the boys and girls’ categories.

“The company is sponsoring the competition not because of the profit, but we are doing this to empower the young footballers, who want to take football as their career. I am happy that some of the players who played in this tournament before are currently in the Golden Eaglets and female junior national teams. This is good news for us and we are still committed to sponsoring this tournament on q yearly basis,” Akindele said.

According to the Match Coordinator, Taofeek Ajibola, arrangements have been put in place for the opening match, while urging all the participating teams to abide by the rules.

“We are starting the competition this Saturday (today) and all the teams are looking forward to the opening match. This is the competition being sponsored by Courteville Business Solutions headed by Otunba Adebola Ismail Akindele and we are using this medium to urge our participating players and coaches to be ambassadors of their teams and shun vices that can tarnish the image of the competition,” he said.