BY SUNDAY AKINTOYE
Sponsor of the 1X Cup football tournament has announced that this year’s edition is only strictly for amateur and grassroots players saying that any team registered professional players would be sanctioned accordingly.
General Manager of 1XBet Betting Company, Dimeji Adedapo stated this during the press conference held on Friday in Lagos.
Declaring the competition open officially, Adedapo said the competition was designed for the young players who are within ages of 16 to 18 saying that the purpose of the competition is to discover young players that would be scouted by foreign agents during the tournament.
He said the era of allowing some professional players from NPFL and NNL to feature in the biggest grassroots football competition in Lagos is over and urged the team’s owners to dissuade from registering professional players in their teams.
“All the 100 participating teams have registered their players on online and we the sponsor with the members of technical department have collected their players profile and there is no professional player being registered by any team.
“Perhaps if we discover a team or teams registered professional players from NPFL and NNL along the line who are still playing active football would be penalised and sanctioned,”he said.
Adedapo quickly clarified that only players who are playing in Nationwide League One, NLO down to the grassroots clubs are eligible to participate in the tournament sponsored and packaged by 1XBet Company.
Speaking in the same vein, head of operation,1XBet Company, Abiodun Babalola, expressed satisfaction with the level of preparation put in place by the organisers and reiterated company’s commitment to ensuring better organisation and coordination in this year’s edition.
He however said the competition has contributed to the social and economic development on the lives of players, fans and other football stakeholders since inception and urged the fans to come to match venue to support their darling teams during the tournament.
In his own comments, head of technical department, Waidi Akanni said the tournament has become household name in Lagos and country at large considering the number of teams registered for the tournament.
He disclosed that 100 teams are divided into five divisions in the state in the qualifying round and only 24 teams would book a place in the knockout stage.
“We have zoned these teams into five divisions.We have Epe, Badagry,Lagos,Ikeja and Ikorodu division and we have number of teams that would qualify in each division to the knockout stage.
“It is going to be an interesting competition and every team would like to win their game which makes the tournament a competitive one,”he said.
Meanwhile, the annual football tournament will begin next Thursday at the Inspire Stadium, Oshodi Cappa, Lagos.
