Students contest in maiden First Bank, SOF schools tourney

The inaugural First Bank and Samuel Okwaraji Foundation National Secondary Schools Football Championship, tagged the Memoir Cup, has commenced across multiple states of the federation in what organisers hope will become an annual fixture in Nigeria’s football calendar.

The tournament, which is being run in conjunction with the Nigeria Football Federation and the Nigeria School Sports Federation, is structured in three stages. State championships currently underway across all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory will produce state champions, who will then advance to zonal play-offs. The zonal representatives will subsequently converge at a national final to contest the ultimate prize.

Senator Osita Izunazo, chairman of the tournament’s steering committee, said the Samuel Okwaraji Foundation was established to honour the memory of the Nigerian football legend Samuel Sochukwuma Okwaraji, who collapsed and died while on active duty for the Super Eagles on August 12, 1989, during a 1990 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Angola at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.

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Izunazo said the foundation’s primary aim is to provide a structured platform for the discovery of young talented footballers in secondary schools from across the country, making a deliberate contribution to grassroots football development through properly organised school competitions.

He also commended First Bank, Nigeria’s leading financial institution, for partnering with the foundation to ensure the tournament could reach all states of the federation, describing the collaboration as crucial to the competition’s nationwide footprint.

The tournament is expected to become an annual feature in the Nigerian football calendar, with organisers hoping it will serve as a consistent pipeline for identifying and nurturing the next generation of Nigerian football talent from the grassroots level upwards.

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