By Femi Atolagbe
A sports enthusiast and sponsor of the just concluded Secondary School football competition, Favour Adesida has called on cooperate bodies and individuals to join hands with government to bring back the glamour and interest attached to school sports.
Adesida, said his dream was towards the promotion of grassroots football development in the state.
He stated this at the grand finale of the two weeks football competition won by Commercial Secondary School Akure in a fiercely contested encounter between the school and Ejioba Secondary School. The game had ended 2-2 in the regulation time.
He said: “I noticed that the competitions involving secondary schools had reduced and decided to use the Inaugural edition to test waters and was happy with the level of participation in the tournament.”
” I really appreciate what I saw here today, it is really encouraging and it showed that school sports have been neglected and we urge government and individuals to help bring back the glamour and interests attached to this kind of events,” he said.
Ejioba Secondary School had earlier gone up 2-0 in what would have been regarded as a concluded match before commercial secondary school found their way into the game by equalizing, balancing the deficit and making it 2-2 at the end of regulation time.
The two-week tournament commenced on Oct. 4 and ended this week with 16 teams participated in the tourney.
Commercial Secondary School won the competition after beating Ejioba 11 – 10 on penalties to emerge the winner of the Inaugural edition of the competition.
The Coach of the Commercial Secondary School, Femi Akinlaye commended the sponsor for giving the boys the platform and the joy to compete after training for long.
Akinlaye said he should continue the good gesture and look more on the positive side and leave the negative side to continue the competition
“I really appreciate the organisers of Favour Secondary Football Competition for reviving the lost rivalry between secondary schools in Akure metropolis.
Games Master of Ejioba High School, Samule Bello said the school management is very happy to be part of the competition and the exposure it created for the students.
”We believe that life is all about you win some and you lose some, so we accept the fate that fell on our part now and we look forward to win the next edition,” he said.
Also, Sports Officer of Command Day Secondary School, Wale Ogundipe expressed his gratitude for the gift and award given to his students by the organisers.
“The management appreciates the Organisers for their gifts and Awards presented to our student and Captain, Hussein Daniel, this brings a great joy to us and this memory will be an indelible ink in our thoughts forever.
