South West Pre-Season Tourney: 11 teams to participate in readiness for new season

The Chairman, South West Football forum, Seyi Akinwunmi said that Pre-Season tournament, will feature 11 teams.

The competition will hold between Dec 3 to Dec 8 at the Agege Township Stadium. Akinwunmi said the competition would serve as a platform for the clubs playing in the league to assess their teams.

”The regional tournament could serve as an appraisal for the team on their preparedness for the new season. ”The Pre-Season tournament is aimed at giving the clubs campaigning in the league a veritable platform to assess their team before the commencement of the league,” he said.

 Akinwunmi who is also First Vice President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) said that the regional championships to provide a synergy for football developmental programmes among the south west clubs. ”It is also an avenue for the discovery of young players in the South West Zone,” he said.

Akinwunmi said that the organisers were satisfied with the level of preparedness of the teams that had registered for the tournament. “We are satisfied with the level of preparation for the championships . The teams are getting prepared”. “We are expecting teams from the Nigeria Professional Football League and Nigeria National League 10 of them,” he said.

 Akinwunmi said the organiser of the tournament had learnt from the previous edition of the tournament. ”This showed that the teams that performed well also translate it to their campaign in the league. “We are quite satisfied with the timing of the tournament because it will serve as a prelude to the new league season.

 “The last edition affords various teams the opportunity to assess their team in terms of performance and technicalities. “Those that performed well in the championships last year can see their effect in their campaign during the league season because they can assess the players. “The tournament helps them to know their strength and weakness and also affords them the opportunity to plan ahead for the league,’’ he said.

Akinwunmi assured that the tournament would keep improving in terms of organisation and coordination. “What we are assuring is that the competition will continue to get better as the time comes by. The mistakes noticed in the previous edition will be corrected in the next. “By next year, we hope to see more clubs interested in the tournament,” he said.

 The Secretary of the forum, Akin Akinbobola, said that not only the teams and players would enjoy the benefit of assessing themselves, but also the referees. “The opportunity of assessment is not only for the teams, but also the referees and match officials getting them ready for the new league season.

“The teams that will be participating are drawn from the Premier League, National League and a state representative from Ekiti.

 “The teams are MFM FC, Sunshine Stars of Akure, Remo Stars, Crown FC, of Ogbomosho, Spartan FC of Lagos, Akure City, and a club assembled by Ekiti,’’ he said.

Akinbobola said that part of the gains of the tournament would be a technical assessment reports to be given by some experts in the league system to strengthen the clubs participating in the tournament. “Parts of the gain include a technical report that will be given by the technical committee headed by Taiwo Ogunjobi who will give a holistic approach to the teams.

“They will be assessed in their areas of strength and weakness and advice on where they needed to consolidate and improve top have a successful outing in their campaign.

 “We are also giving the team opportunity to know what to expect from other teams and if there are more lapses, there would be another tournament to assess them. “The tournament would probably hold a month to the commencement of the new league season,’’ he said. The tournament which was first held in 2016 at Onikan Stadium was won by Gateway FC of Abeokuta.