By Femi Atolagbe
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In a bid to host a smooth and successful competition across the eighteen local government councils of Ondo State ,the technical committee of the main organiser of Aketi Cup, tagged Governor’s Cup (Klick Konnect Networks) in partnership with Ministry of Youths and Sports Development have begun the inspection of different venues where the competition will hold.

During the inspection tour ,the technical committee also met with the local governments Chairmen of Football Association ( FA) and Referee Association who will organize the preliminary stages of the competition in their respective local governments for the main organiser.

The General manager of Ondo State Sports Council (OSSC),Chief Wande Fabuluje, who is the Chairman of the technical committee, represented by the secretary of the State Football Association, Mr Daodu Alex, said the committee embarked on the tour to inspect the facilities on ground and avail you all the rules and regulations guiding the competition.

According to him, we are here to know the level of your preparedness for the hosting of the competition and to know if there are any challenges in your local governments.

In his contribution the secretary of the technical committee, Mr Folajimi Dabo, said one of reasons for the tour is to know what each local government will need for the hosting of the preliminaries at each local government.

He appealed to the local FAs to make their needs and demand affordable, saying due to current economic situation in the country and in Ondo state, government is not funding the competition, saying that is why they gave it to consultants who will look for the sponsors for the competition.

“The essence of this is to reawakening the hitherto moribund Ondo State Governor’s Cup.”

According to the organisers, “a team will emerge from the preliminary stages to represent their respective local governments at the main competition.”

The need and demand of the local governments FA includes, cutting and lining of fields, goal post nets, security, first aid box, match balls, unbiased officiating in the competition, mobilisation and logistics to motivate the FA and publicity at the local governments.

In Ondo West and Ondo East local governments the need and demand are the same .

Chairman Okitipupa FA and his counterpart from Ilaje , Mr Igbasan Babatunde and Ebiesuwa Monday said they are starting their competitions immediately while others assured that they will conclude their own preliminaries before next week Tuesday.

In his response, the secretary of the technical committee said all the requests will be looked into and the main organisers will get back to them in due course.

He therefore gave match balls to all the local governments FA’s repre-sentatives at the meeting, urging them to make the competition hitch free in their respective local governments.

Earlier the Chairman of the technical committee has described referees as life wire of any competition, urging them to throw the match open for the best team to emerge by being free and fair to all the teams.

The Chairman of Referee Association in Ondo State, Comrade Fabidun Fidelix Akinyemi while responding, assured the organisers of the competition that the referees will be free, fair and firm to all the participating teams in the competition.

“I trust them any day anytime , most of the referees that will be involved are of the National and international standard, they are going to put in their best and people will see the beauty of officiating during the competition”.

He therefore appealed to all the officiating referees to leave above board through out the competition.

The local government visited so far includes , Ilaje ,Ese -Odo, Okitipupa, Irele, Odigbo ,Ile -Oluji Oke Igbo and Ondo West and Ondo East local governments.