By Daily Sports on November 24, 2016

The national inter-academies football competition for grassroots teams called Frank Peters Cup has just ended in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State.

At the end of about 3 weeks of grueling, entertaining, and highly competitive football games, Synergy FC of Lagos emerged champions on Sunday afternoon after beating Dominion Pacers of Ijebu Ode 5-4 on penalties after regulation time ended 1-1.

Synergy drew the first blood early in the first half, but Dominion Pacers responded almost immediately with an equaliser. On penalties Synergy held their nerves better and won the game as well as 1.5 million naira prize money set for the competition.

As the first of its kind, what where the lessons drawn from this competition that was hosted by a private individual and which attracted grassroots teams from all over the country.

Let me quickly talk about the good and not-so-palatable things I noticed in this completion.

First the good: by bringing together grassroots clubs and players from all over the country alone marks a positive development for youth football in the country. It is not easy to find a man with the fore sight to create a platform for grassroots footballers to exhibit their talents on a grand occasion. Frank Peters, the Nigerian entrepreneur has done really well in contributing financially in floating a programme that serves as useful basics for the improvement of the experience level of young footballers.

Another positive development gleaned from the competition comes from its aftermath. As at the time of writing this, a select number of players who impressed in this competition were training in Ijebu Ode, preparatory to being flown out of the country to represent Nigeria in an under 19 international competition scheduled for Durban, South Africa soon.

By taking these young boys from modest homes to go and search for the needed green pasture as they play in front of big football club scouts, Mr Peters would have further shattered the ceiling in going high to uplift the fortunes of football  in the land.

The Frank Peters Cup competition however had a noticeable down side. Age cheating which we have always identified with the lack of progress of the game reared its ugly head in Ijebu ode. Out of desperation to win, most of the teams presented players who are well above 19.

The few players below 19 were consumed in this fire of desperation, and denied the opportunity of showing their stuff. You don’t need me to tell you that when young players are denied the opportunity of shining in such big completions, their development is stymied and the result is that the country would be denied the services of players who have properly developed by passing through the ranks of such age grade tournaments.

The organisers would do well to insist on players of the right age to participate next year so that there would be a more level-playing ground for all and we can given confidence to truly young talents to play and develop. That would be good for the players, their clubs and the country.

Source Daily Sports

Posted November 24, 2016

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