Amaju, Green to Grace Final of South-south Tourney

President, Nigeria Football Federation, Pinnick Amaju, and the Head, Technical Committee of the NFF, Chris Green, will grace the final of the inaugural South-South Champion of Champions football tournament at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin City, Edo State, today.

According to the Edo FA chairman, Frank Ilaboya, he said the duo had assured of him their presence at the closing ceremony of the competition, which has eight teams from the South-south region of the country vying for honours.

“I spoke with the NFF president, Amaju, and Green and they are both excited about the standard of play displayed in the competition and have promised to be present on the final day,” Ilaboya said.The participating teams are Edo FA Cup kings, Inneh Stars, Dynamite FC, Insurance (Edo); J.Atete, Delta Force (Delta); Yenagoa Academy (Bayelsa), Akwa Starlets and Go Round FC (Rivers). The winners of the tournament, organised by the Edo FA and sponsored by FROT Group, will go home with N1m while runners-up will receive N500,000.

Ilaboya said there would also be a ceremonial match between ex-internationals, which would include Augustine Eguavoen, Kingsley Obiekwu, Joe Okoh, Edema Fuludu, Emmanuel Okonebho, Karimu Shuaibu, Wilson Oboh amongst others against a Benin All Stars team.

“The ex-internationals versus All Stars game will serve as the curtain-raiser of the tournament; the game will give people the opportunity to watch the ex-internationals in action again.

I am happy with the standard of play displayed by the teams; all the teams are happy because the tournament will help them prepare properly for the Federation Cup, which is just around the corner,” Ilaboya stated.

Speaking further, Ilaboya added, “Insurance and Delta Force are the invited teams for the tournament. Edo has three teams because we want to use the competition to maximum benefit. It will be of great help to Insurance, who are gunning for promotion to the top division, and Inneh Stars and Dynamite FC, who will represent us in the Federation Cup.”