BY SUNDAY AKINTOYE
A member of Nigeria Football Federation,Aisha Falode has commended the organisers of Nigeria Future Leaders Festival tagged’An Exclusive female football competition’ for empowering the next generation of future leaders through sports.
The one day female football tournament which held on Thursday morning at FIFA legacy comprises four private schools and was put together by sport enthusiast, Folasade Falokun in conjunction with Lagos State Football Association, LSFA.
The four invited private schools are Greenspring Schools, Chrisland Schools, Supreme Education Foundation and Wellspring College.
Greenspring emerged as champions after defeating Supreme Education Foundation 2-0 in the final, while Chrisland emerged third place position after defeating Wellspring College 2-0 on penalties following the goalless draw at the regulation time.
Speaking after the final,Falode said she was impressed with the standard of female football competition among the private schools and commended the organisers for the initiative.
She said female football should be encouraged not only in schools also at the grassroots and urged the school owners and governments to build more sports facilities to enable the female football grow.
“I must commend the organisers of this initiative.This competition inspires young female football talents and promoting gender equality.From what I saw in this competition, the future of female football is brighter in our country.Let me use this medium to urge the school owners and government at all levels to create enabling environment for our children to exhibit their skills at the tender age,”he said.
In his own comment, vice chairman of Lagos State Football Association LSFA,Dotun Coker expressed his satisfaction with the performance of the invited schools and aligned with Falode’s remark on unavailability of enough sports facilities in the state which affects the school sports development.
Also speaking,convener of the tournament, Falokun expressed her heartfelt appreciations to the sponsors, Lagos State Sports Commission and Lagos State Football Association LSFA for their technical, moral, financial and material supports and extended her gratitude to her well wishers and friends for their necessary supports given the tournament to make this year’s edition a successful one.
She explained that the purpose of the one day event was to promote gender equality and give the girl’s child a platform to exhibit their skills through the round leather game.