BOS Youth Cup for U-21 set to debut in Lagos

The maiden Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu (BOS) Youth Cup is set to debut in Lagos. The U-21 tournament will hold across all the Local Government Areas (LGAs)/Council Development Areas in the state.

According to the organisers, the competition will be a yearly event aimed at unearthing football talents under the age of 21.

Twenty teams will compete for the cup.

Speaking on the occasion of its launch yesterday, Senior Special Assistant to Governor on Sports, Anthony Adeyinka Adeboye, said the contest is one of the key programmes under the governor’s development agenda strategically put in place for a greater Lagos.

“Part of the vision of the Babajide Sanwo-Olu-led administration is to actively engage the teeming youths of the state for a more robust economic development. This is a deliberate policy of Mr. Governor due to the very important position the youth demographic occupies in the country’s population.

“Records show that the youth occupy about 45 per cent of Nigeria’s population and when broken down to states, Lagos has the highest number of youth demography in Nigeria, standing at 54 per cent.

“To this end, the governor believes the focus should be on the youth population, hence the creation of many interventions across different spheres of life, speaking to the specific needs of the youths in the state.

He also “recognises the myriad of challenges facing today’s youth and as government, the governor and his team have vowed to tackle those challenges head-on in line with the themes developmental agenda and Second Pillar, Goal three of the Lagos Resilience Strategy, which is a plan to prepare the youth for a changing economy,” he said.

While calling on eminent individuals and corporate organisations to align with the state to develop the youth and economy, he stated, “the closing stage of the inaugural BOS Youth Cup is scheduled to hold at the Mobolaji Johnson Sports Arena, Onikan, with the Governor himself handing the trophy to the winning team.

“A seminar shall be organised for key stakeholders in the 20 LGAs where the rules and regulations of the event and others shall be explained,” he concluded.