4th August, 2011
In order to achieve his set out goals to develop football in Lagos State, management of Lagos Junior League, LJL, believes a romance with corporate organisations is important.
During an interactive session with sports journalists yesterday at the secretariat of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria, SWAN, Lagos chapter, inside the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, it was agreed that corporate organisations’ support is needed for the league to achieve its lofty objectives to develop football at the grassroots in Lagos State.
Managing Director of Spur Sports Nigeria Ltd., the league’s marketer, Oluwaseun Sofunwa, said that corporate organisations should embrace the league and give it the needed support.
He said any money spent on the league is indirectly used to safeguard the future of the Nigerian youth.
Secretary of the board of the LJL, Barrister Taofik Aromire, disclosed that the league season will run from 17 Spetember, 2011 to 18 July, 2012.
He said that the league will be divided into Premiership with 20 teams that qualified from the first stanza which ended early this year and League One , which will also consist of 20 teams.
According to Aromire, all the teams featuring in the league, which are owned by local governments in the state, have been mandated to register as public limited companies.
“The plan is that local government which owned a team will have 51 percent of the controlling shares, while the remaining 49 percent will be sold to the members of the public.,†he said.
Listing the benefit that players in the league will get, Aromire said that the players will be exposed to foreign scouts, get monetary rewards, trophies and certificates.
He said the league is opened to only secondary school students in the state, and is out to curb age cheats in Nigerian football.