A board member of the Nigeria Football Federation, Aisha Falode, has declared that the dividend of the Oyo Unity Cup, a grassroots football competition sponsored by the Minister for Sports, Sunday Dare will soon manifest in the country’s football fortunes.
Falode said yesterday at the Soun Stadium, Ogbomosho, Oyo State said the grassroots competition was aimed at boosting the development of football and sports generally in the country.
Falode, who is also the chairperson, Nigeria Women Football League noted that a sizeable number of future football stars would annually be discovered from the grassroots football competition.
“All the country’s top soccer stars were discovered from the grassroots. This is a nursery for the national teams and club football.
“You cannot build a house from the top, it must be from the foundation and the Oyo Unity Cup represents the foundation. This is a platform to identify football talents we all need as a country to service the various football clubs and the national teams. This is what we have seen here today.”
She said: “We must commend the minister for the Oyo Unity Cup. If we have programmes like this replicated across all the local governments areas in Nigeria, there would be a pool of players to draw from, good enough to replace ageing top soccer stars who had served fatherland for donkey years and needed to retire,” she said.