The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank), Segun Agbaje has given reasons behind the company’s sponsorship of Principals Cup not only in Lagos State but in some of the states in the country.
In a chat with our correspondent at the final of this year’s edition of the competition in Lagos State, Agbaje said the company plans to get more state apart from Lagos, Ogun and Rivers States.
He said: “GTBank is out to create a passion for young ones and tells you why we are really behind the sponsorship of the Principals Cup in the country.
“What we set out to achieve for young ones is to create a platform for them to compete, develop and create values and work out a passion for young ones, not necessarily to raise professional footballers.
“If you look at the attendance today, we are encourage and we think it’s been a great success. We believe that one of the best places to learn the principles of hard work, competing values, is through sports and if they have those values, we are very sure, they will do well in life.”
For six years running, the competition has provided a developmental platform for young talents to be identified, nurtured and contribute immensely to the development of grassroots football.
Agbaje explained that the Principals Cup game started slowly. “We started the Principals Cups game slowly, and now we have one in Ogun and Port-Harcourt.
“In order to do things properly, we need to take time to invest the right resources, so that many ultimately will see the game getting lot more interesting. Ogun State Principal cups is as committed as that of Lagos state. I would like to thank the state governors of both states for their incredible support for the Principals cup.”
On his part, the Chairman of the Lagos State Football Association and the First Vice-President, Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Seyi Akinwunmi x-rayed the importance of infusing a national policy to encourage football in youths.
He said: “From the boys and girls, we observed the talents amongst them, but the issue is to harness these talents.
“The idea is to inaugurate these kind of tournaments and ensure they are infused into the national policy, so that we could have a pathway way which everyone will know and go through.
“There’s a difference between literate and illiterate footballers, and so we shouldn’t be left behind, that’s why we are infusing and trying to balance up education and football”
GTBank gave out prizes to winners and runner-ups as promised, ranging from N1,000, 000 for the winner, to N750,000 for the first runner up, 500,000 for the second runner up, and 250,000 for the third runner up, accompanied by others offers such as immediate upgrade of sport facilities such as goal post, balls, post nets and corner flags in their various schools.
However, for the girls, Ikotun High School, Oriwu Model College, Government Senior College and CMS Girls Senior Secondary School had these gifts in the girls category; while for the boys, Birrel College, Keke High School, Ikorodu Senior Grammar School and Ifako Comprehensive High School had these gifts in there kitty.
