Bankole: Spires 5-Aside Street Soccer Aimed to Create New Standard
CEO of Spires Media, Dr Femi Bankole speaking at the session with team coaches and the sporting media in lagos.
Spires 5-Aside Naija Street Soccer Tournament, a new frontier of community engagement through five-a-side football competition has been created as a new standard in youth empowerment and human capital development.
Speaking at an interactive media session in Lagos yesterday, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Spires Media, Dr Femi Bankole, said that the tournament is aimed, amongst others, to unearth a lot of football talents on the streets of Lagos not captured by some of the existing football academy.
He stressed further that the Spires 5-Aside Naija Street Soccer Tournament, marks a significant milestone in the promoters commitment to redefining Nigerian street soccer and harnessing the immense talents found within the Lagos communities.
“One of the biggest export of Nigeria to the world today is human capital. Wether in ICT, Engineering, Medicine, etc , you just name it, it is human capital. Why is Sports nay Football not richly involved? The Victor Osimhen, Ademola Lookman and other footballers are just in minority. This is where a tournament like this is aimed at unearthing great league talents that can help the economy of their families.,” stressed UK-based Dr Bankole.
The flagship tournament commenced early this year with a series of activities that culminated into successful Lagos Divisional Qualifying matches with over 40 games played. More than 400 players were involved in the qualifiers that cut across the five divisions of Lagos FA.
It is these qualifiers that produced the 16 teams to be grouped into four groups of four teams each for the Main Tournament of Round of 16 scheduled to kick off November 9.
Dr Bankole stressed that the organisation aims to steer youth away from negative influences and towards a path of self-improvement and achievement.
“Looking ahead, we expect the tournament to become an annual breeding ground for future stars on the international stage. We envision nurturing raw talent into world-class athletes, elevating Nigeria’s football culture and uniting communities through the game.”
Apart from some of the coaches of teams involved in the tournament, On-Air personalities like AriseTV’s Rufai Oseni, Ezugwu Chukwudi (A.K.A The Husband Material) and Media Influencer, Pooja were in attendance to add colour to the event. Four Sports Editors of National newspapers in the country were also in attendance at the event.
