"But, the guys at SPDC, with consultant, Segun Odegbami, MON, in the thick of it, had identified a worrying trend in the nation where Nigerian youths, seduced by the megabucks being earned by football stars, were beginning to abandon education for football. The portents were bad. The dangers, of producing many half-literate football stars that would neither be able to take informed decisions about their career, nor be able to fend for themselves after their playing days, were real."
This afternoon at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos, students from four secondary schools will continue their contest for honours in the 13th edition of NNPC/Shell Cup for All Nigeria secondary schools Football Championship. They are the last-four standing from a starting line-up of about 5,000 schools from across the country.
The battle-tested but not battle-weary four-some are: Government Day Secondary School, Gwadabawa, Yola, Adamawa state, Government Secondary School, Gwammaja, Kano, Kano state, Brilliant International Pre-varsity, Akure, Ondo State, and defending champions, Government Secondary School, Owerri, Imo State.
The Adamawa boys got their state ticket through a lone goal victory over Government Secondary School, Numan, went on to defeat all-comers at the zonal preliminaries played in Bauchi; winning 3-1 against Taraba state, 5-1 against Gombe and 3-0 against Yobe; thus topping the table with the maximum nine points, scoring 11 goals and conceding only two. They qualified for the semi-finals by defeating Government Day Secondary School, Birnin-Kebbi, Kebbi state four goals to two in the quarter-final played in Kaduna.
GSS, Gwammaja, Kano, earned the right to fly Kano state’s flag by defeating Government Secondary School, Mijibir 2-0; won the zonal preliminaries played in Lafia, through one victory - Niger State, 2-1; a score draw - Kaduna State, 1-1 and a walk-over FCT which earned them three goals and three points in accordance with the championship rules. They secured their place among the top-four at the expense of Government secondary School, Zamfara State at one of the quarterfinals played in Ilorin.
The only private school among the lot, Brilliant International Pre-varsity, Akure, Ondo state walloped state rivals City Academy, Ikare 3-0 to take their place at the zonals played in Osogbo where they went to lead the group with seven points from two victories - Kogi 3-0 and Ogun 2-0 - and a no-score draw against Ekiti. They scored five goals and conceded none. They bettered Lagos State representative, Ilupeju Senior Secondary School, Lagos 3-0 in the quarterfinals to reach the grand finale.
The defending champions, GSS, Owerri scraped through 1-0 at the state finals against Secondary Technical School, Okwobor, Orlu, but regained their goal-scoring prowess at the zonals -in Calabar, drawing their first match 2-2 against Anambra state champions, defeated Abia 5-0 and earned three goals and three points from a walk-over Ebonyi state. In the event, they topped the zone with 8 points.and were credited with a total of 10 goals for and two against. Their semi-finals ticket came via a 2-0 quarterfinal victory over Community Comprehensive Secondary School, Okoboh, Rivers State in the quarterfinals.
On offer this afternoon, in the material sense, are cash gifts, certificates of participation and the familiar medals and trophies. Specifically, the winners will go home with the glittering gold trophy, gold medals, certificates of participation, N50,000 for each of the 20 players and a cash award of N2.5million for the school, N1.5million of which must go to sports development. The boys from the second placed team will get the silver medals, certificates of participation, N45,000 for each of them while their school will receive a cash reward of N1.4million. The 20 boys in the bronze medal winning team will, in addition to their medals and certificates of participation, receive N35, 000 each. The school gets N500,000. The fourth placed team is not left out. In addition to the certificate of participation, each of the players will go away with N30,000, while the school receives N400,000.
But all of those prizes, prize money and all of that are not the raison detre for this write-up. The real reason is to celebrate the vision an the consistency of the sponsors and the organizers of this championship which has found a place of honour on the football calendar of this nation. It is such that everybody who is anybody in the Nigerian world of sports and education now drop everything else to attend the grand finale this afternoon, as has become the situation these past few years.
In celebrating the sponsors, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) acting on behalf of its partners, I recall vividly how it took guts and commitment to dabble into the field of secondary schools football sponsorship in 1998 when they took the plunge. If you wonder why, here it is in the words of a top official of the company: “When the idea of introducing the championship came to us in the late 1990s, we had many challenges to contend with. It was not that football competition at the secondary school level was a novelty. No, there had been at least two; but they had been rested due largely to violence that used to characterise the matches particularly among rival schools in the major cities, and poor funding. Poor funding was the result of lack of corporate sponsorship which itself was the result of companies distancing themselves from the potential damage that the violence could do to their image.”
But, the guys at SPDC, with consultant, Segun Odegbami, MON, in the thick of it, had identified a worrying trend in the nation where Nigerian youths, seduced by the megabucks being earned by football stars, were beginning to abandon education for football. The portents were bad. The dangers, of producing many half-literate football stars that would neither be able to take informed decisions about their career, nor be able to fend for themselves after their playing days, were real.
Continues that official, “there was also the fact that many of the nation’s star footballers were advancing in age and unless there was a kind of nursery to produce replacements, there could be a dearth of well-honed football artists in the medium term. And where else should the nursery be but in the schools, particularly if the tide identified above was to be stemmed.”
These were the rationale for instituting the championship which has been organised by the National School Sports Federation with a lot of help from Odegbami’s Worldwide Sports since then, with so great a success that its incontrovertible that no national team is complete these days without the inclusion of Shell Cup products whether that team be under-16/17, under-21, under-23 or the Super Eagles. Yet the boys didn’t have to leave school to achieve that.
As the 13th edition climaxes today, I salute the vision and consistency of SPDC, NSSF and WWS even as I recall the great pioneering roles of Rev Precious Omuku, Mrs Elizabeth Fagbure and Bisi Ojediran, among others, all of whom deserve to be proud to have been associated with this enduring vision.
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