Six days left until the commencement of the Chief Onigbinde U-17 football tourney, the event is set to change the face of grassroots football in Nigeria. The championship which has been christened after the former CAF/FIFA instructor and two-time Super Eagles coach, Chief Adegboye Onigbinde to celebrate the living icon, has its objectives; to serve as a valuable avenue of reaching out to the youths in Oyo state and beyond.
Organized by the Onigbinde Forum, the championship is a youth developmental project which aims at disseminating, educating, imparting on the youths; an effort to inspire true patriotism and positive attitudes among them while helping them reach their football dreams.
The project already gathered support from the Oyo State Football Association, Oyo State Sports Council, Nigeria Football Coaches Association (Oyo state chapter) and Oyo State Ministry of Youths and Sports Development. The project which also has former Super Eagles players, Ike Shoronmu and Mutiu Adepoju as ambassadors, is conceived by a strong need for a first-rate youth soccer developmental platform to serve the army of vastly talented youth programs in Oyo State and Nigeria as a whole.
The tournament will witness eleven days (October 20 – 31, 2021) of talent discovery, football artistry and fierce battle that will take place amongst the thirty-two participating teams majorly across the Southwestern part of Nigeria that will participate in the maiden edition with Obafemi Awolowo Stadium (formerly Liberty Stadium), serving as the venue for all the matches.
If football at the Nigerian grassroots is truly dead and talents are struggling to have a breakthrough, the Chief Onigninde U-17 tourney is about to breathe life into the grassroots because talent will be discovered, developed and exposed!
OJB SPORT 