Nigeria Content Online

The second season
(2010/11) of the Lagos State-GTBank Principals Cup will kick off on
December 12 with the zonal preliminary finals. This was revealed
yesterday at a press conference by the Deputy Governor of Lagos State,
Sarah Adebisi Sosan, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in
the Ministry of Education, Omolara Erogbogbo.

According to Erogbogbo, this year’s edition promises more excitement than that of last year.

The historical
football tournament which started as the Zard Cup in 1948 was renamed
the Principals Cup in 1966 and revamped by Lagos State Government in
2006. GTBank became the sponsor of the tournament this year and held
the first edition which was successful.

As many as ten
players were picked from various schools to join up with the national
U-17 team, coached by John Odigie in Abuja. The team however failed to
qualify for the U-17 Nations Cup after being knocked out by Congo DR.

The aim of the
competition is among other things according to Erogbogbo is to,
“Balance the development of children, to showcase their talent and also
to show that sports has the great potential of identifying and
nurturing such talents”.

The sponsors of the competition GTBank, represented by Femi Adeniran, its Head of

Corporate Affairs, said the bank was commitment towards to the success of the tournament.

“We believe that by
totally ensuring the revival and the institutionalisation of the
Principals Cup, more lives would be affected and our youth and society
would be better off for it”.

Adeniran also added
for the benefit of the school children for which the competition was
set up that: “Believe for only then can you reach your goals.”

The competition
with the motto “A sound mind in a sound body”, will start on the
December 12 with the Zonal preliminaries, which will run till February
next year. The last edition of the competition was won by Gaskiya
Senior Secondary School, in the male category while in the female
category Alakoto Senior Secondary School took the top prize. Each of
the winners was given a cash prize of one million naira.

The consultants to
the project, MediaVision Ltd, through its Chief Executive Officer, Fela
Bank-Olemoh also promised to set up a comprehensive website for
adequate information, statistics and photos.

The final date for the final match has not been listed as it is the
prerogative of the Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola, to
attend the occasion.