The Chairman, South-West Pre-Season Football Tournament, Seyi Akinwunmi, on Wednesday said the tournament would provide a platform for league club owners to assess their teams.
Akinwunmi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the regional tournament would serve as a tune-up tournament for the clubs.
NAN reports that the pre-season tournament is aimed at giving the clubs campaigning in the league a proper platform to assess their teams before the commencement of the season.
The regional championships according to the organisers, would also provide a collaboration for football development programmes among the South-West clubs.
“It is also an avenue for the discovery of young players in the South-West Zone,’’ Akinwunmi said.
NAN reports that the tournament is expected to hold from Dec. 3 to Dec. 9 at the Agege Township Stadium.
Akinwunmi who is also the First Vice-President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) said the organisers were so far satisfied with the level of preparation of the tournament’s registered teams.
“We are satisfied with the level of preparations for the championship, and the teams are getting prepared.
“We are expecting teams from the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) and Nigeria National League (NNL) and they are 10 in number.
The tournament chairman added that the lessons learnt from the tournament’s previous edition showed that the teams that performed well have always sustained the momentum in the league proper.
“We are quite satisfied with the timing of the tournament, because it will serve as a prelude to the league season.
“The last edition afforded participating clubs the opportunity to assess their teams in terms of performance and technicalities.
“Those that performed well in the championship last year can see the effect in their campaign during the league season, because they were able to use it to assess their players.
“The tournament helped them to know their strengths and weaknesses, and it also afforded them the opportunity to plan ahead of the league,’’ he said.
In the same vein, the Secretary of the tournament, Akin Akinbobola, said the tournament’s impact would rub off positively on the players and the referees who would participate in it.
“The opportunity of assessment is not only for the teams, but also the referees and other match officials, in getting them ready for the new league season.
“The teams that will be participating are drawn from the NPFL and NNL and a state representative from Ekiti.
“The teams are MFM FC of Lagos, Sunshine Stars of Akure, Remo Stars of Sagamu, Crown FC of Ogbomosho, Spartan FC of Lagos, Akure City FC, and a club assembled by Ekiti,’’ he said.
Akinbobola also said part of the tournament’s gains would be technical assessment reports to be given by some experts in the league system to strengthen the clubs participating in the tournament.
“This technical committee headed by Taiwo Ogunjobi will give a holistic approach to the assessment of the teams.
“They will be assessed in their areas of strength and weakness and advised on where they needed to consolidate and improve ahead of the upcoming season.
“We are also giving the teams the opportunity to know what to expect from other teams and, if there are too many lapses, there will be another tournament to assess them.
“This other tournament will probably come up a month to the commencement of the new league season,’’ he said.(NAN)
