Preview Of 2011: Stakeholders Expect Busy Year

As the year 2010  draws to a close tomorrow, stakeholders in grassroots football are already looking forward to a bright new year.

The outgoing year witnessed a lot of grassroots soccer competitions. Stakeholders in the game believe that 2011 should be another eventful year for  grassroots football in the country.

As the New Year is knocking at the door, team coaches, players and organisers have begun to  prepare themselves for a  busy New Year.

Year 2011 is a year of elections in the country. Many politicians who are running for one post or the other will like to sponsor football tournaments to  popularise themselves among the people at the grassroots as it was done before the 2007 general elections.

Some clubs are already preparing for any competition that comes their way early in the year. Championships that club owners will be looking out for are the  Lagos FA Cup, Boska Cup, Mamora Cup, and other high profile competitions.

Speaking on next year’s programme, Real United’s Team Manager, David Felix Ochei said he is planning to play more competitions.

“Real United are still on holiday and by the time we resume in January, we will start preparation for the Lagos FA Cup and other competitions,” he said.

Rising Stars Coach, Lateef Ishola told GSG that  he wants to play more competitions in the New Year than what his team played in 2010. He disclosed that some  of his players left the club because Rising Stars could not feature in  many tournaments in the outgoing year.

“This outgoing year was  not too good for Rising Stars of Isolo because we missed many big competitions. This was because we did not have enough  funds to  prosecute some of these competitions. It was so painful that we lost some of our key players in the process,” he said

Secretary of Gbagada Grassroots Sports Association; Kemac Emina said his association is planning to organise at least one competition in a month to keep the  clubs within Lagos busy throughtout 2011.

He said the association will  soon embark on sponsorship drive to source for funds for its programme in the New Year.

“We are planning to organize more competitions next year if we can get sponsors. I  observed that clubs and academies are coming up every day and it is  necessary for us to increase the number of our competitions  next year,” said Kemac, who praised  his association for successfully organising the recently  concluded  Mamora Cup.

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