Femi Atolagbe

All things being equal, the maiden edition of Obas’ Cup will start tomorrow at the Ondo State Sports Complex, Akure.
The competition was scheduled for last year, but cancelled because of the outbreak of coronavirus.
In a chat with Sporting Hope, Secretary of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the Obas’ Cup, Apostle Samuel Patani said the tourney is strictly among the U- 17 and will fixture a team from the 18 local governments of the state.
Patani added that the purpose of taking the competition to the grassroots was to unearth the budding talents across the state, saying the main organising body would ensure that talent discovered at the competition are nurturing to stardom.
He said; “Aside discovery and nurturing of any talents discovered at the tourney, there would be a Trophy for the winners and individuals awards for the Best Goalkeeper, Most Valuable Player (MVP), Highest goal scorer and others.”
He said there will be march past by the 18 teams at the opening ceremony which has been slated before an exhibition match between Owo Local government and Akure South LG.
According to him, the preliminary will be played at zonal level, the zones which he said has been divided into seven of, Akure, Owo,Ondo, Okitipupa, Ore, Akungba, Ikare zones.