16th December, 2010
The third quarter of the outgoing year witnessed some grassroots competitions, but many club owners and other stakeholders in the industry decried the delay of the Lagos State Oba’s Cup.
The competition was last played about two years ago at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.
The tourney was organised by Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Sports, headed by Prince Ademola Adeniji-Adele in conjunction with the State’s Football Association.
After a successful final, won by Larry FC, many football fans, who came to watch the colourful event were looking forward to the next edition with the belief that the Oba’s Cup has come to stay, but they were dissapinted by the organisers.
Earlier in the year, many grassroots club owners rushed to their various football divisions to register for the competition with the hope that it would kick off before the last 2010 FIFA World Cup held in South Africa.
The first shocker was when the organisers announced that the competition would not hold until after the FIFA World Cup. Some club owners, who had spent a lot of money preparing their clubs for the event were disappointed. they blamed the Lagos State Sports Ministry for intervening in football matters. Some of them even concluded that the competition might never hold again.
The club owners, who still believed that the competition would hold after FIFA World Cup got another shocker when the organisers failed to fix a definite date for the competition.
Another disappointing aspect of the delay was that over 100 clubs registered with their hard earned money, but the Oba’s Cup was not given the nod by the Sports Ministry.
Despite the long delay of the Oba’s Cup, Staruf Academy, owned by former Super Eagles goalkeeper, Peter Rufai, still organised a get together for their players after the club clocked a year.
The party, which was held at the Kernel Park Sports Centre, Surulere, was colourful as parents, guardians, coaches and other stakeholders came to rejoice with the players who showed commitment to the club in the last one year.
Addressing the gathering, Rufai said the academy was established to groom aspiring youths and urged the players to remain focused in their chosen careers.
