Adeolu Johnson
9 December 2011
Lagos — PRESIDENT of the Nigeria School Sports Federation (NSSF), Mallam Ibrahim Mohammed, has assured that measures have been put in place to curb the use of mercenaries during the 2012 NNPC/Shell Cup All Nigeria Secondary Schools football championship scheduled to kick off on December 14 across the country.
Mohammed stated this yesterday at a press briefing held at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos to herald the championship.
According to the Secretary of NSSF who presented the address, Mrs Olabisi Joseph,”the NSSF is collaborating with the Sports Network Initiatives (SNI) in the registration and confirmation of biometrics of players which started last year”.
He stated that “a team made up of the Federal Ministry of Education, National Sports commission (NSC), Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC), Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and All Nigeria Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS) will support technically to ensure a successful and hitch-free championship”.
Meanwhile, Vice President, HSE and Corporate Affiars, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), Mr Tony Ottah, speaking at the briefing assured that the competitions right from the state level would be “monitored very closely to ensure that no student with exceptional talent, including those whose schools may have been eliminated at the earlier stages of the competition, will escape the eye of football scouts assembling the state Academicals”.
Attah, added that “for 14 years, we have believed in and promoted football as an essential curricular activity within our secondary schools and this has created a platform for other initiatives to build upon adding that “we have kept faith in the vision to get our students engaged in developing both their education and football talents”.
He noted that this year’s championship would provide each state the opportunity to select the best players to form their respective teams to the 2012 Academicals Cup, just as he disclosed that the semi-final and final matches of the NNPC/Shell Cup would hold between February 24 and 26, 2012.
Attah also revealed that N8million has been set aside as total prize money for the competition.
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