Akpabio
Cup: Abia, Bayelsa move on
By The Sun Publishing
Thursday, December 4, 2008
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•Photo:
Sun News Publishing |
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Abia and Bayelsa cruise on at Akpabio Cup, as soccer hostilities
continue to hot up in the first edition of the Akpabio Cup.
Abia and Bayelsa boys teams had set the tournament alight
with impressive victories in their opening matches.
In their first match, the Abia team outplayed their Oyo counterparts
3–0, to send strong signals of their intentions to win
the coveted title, which goes with an impressive cash reward
of N500 000. In the match decided at the Uyo Township Stadium,
the boys from Abia scored two goals in the first half, with
the third coming in the second half.
Also starting their championship campaign in flying note were
Bayelsa State, who bashed Benue 2–0 to put their campaign
on a good start. With both goals coming in either half of
the match, the Bayelsa boys proved that they were capable
of dictating the tone of things to come in the tournament.
Meanwhile, the trio of Kaduna, Rivers and Taraba states have
been sent out of the competition following their intentions
to field players above the 17 years age limit. Disclosing
this to newsmen in Uyo, spokesman of the Youth Sports Federation
of Nigeria (YSFON), Ben Ekpo, said the decision to dismiss
the teams from the tournament would serve as a strong warning
to other teams bidding to feature overaged players in future
competitions organised by the foremost youth sports body in
the country.
"In previous times, we would have allowed the players,
who are still within the age limit from the affected teams
to feature, but because we had warned them on the dangers
of using such players in this competition and they were still
bold to come with them we felt, we should ban them outright
from playing,” said Ekpo, who urged the handlers of
the national Under-17 team to take a cue from them.
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