The organisers of the Betsy Obaseki Football Tournament on Wednesday in Benin announced Oct. 19 as the kick-off date for the third edition of the event.
Yussuf Alli, Chairman of the tournament’s Main Organising Committee (MOC), made the announcement during the inauguration of sub-committees for the women football event.
Alli said the tournament would hold from Oct. 19 to Oct. 29 to serve as a pre-season tournament for the Nigeria Women Football League (NWFL) Premiership.
“The event was to have started this month (September) ahead of the Premiership, but the NWFL secretariat moved their event to November.
“We now felt that we should move our own competition close to the event, since it is a pre-season tournament. That is why we cleverly moved it to another time,” he said.
The former national athlete also pointed out that the Betsy Obaseki tournament would have been affected by the 2023 National Youth Games (NYG) which would hold later this month.
“The NYG would have started in the next few days, but that one was also moved to later this month.
“So, we needed to move our competition in order for it to have the necessary media coverage. We do not want to have an event in isolation.
“We want the event properly covered. If you know the wife of our State Governor, she does not do things by chance or in half measures,” he said.
Alli, who is the Chairman of Edo Sports Commission, further said the organisers aimed to put up a more successful tournament.
“World football governing body FIFA has recognised the event and this is good, and it is even adjudged as one of the best pre-season tournaments in this country.
“I think it is a good thing for us to keep it going outside of the government because if you rely on the government, when you leave office, things will just die.
“So, this is being driven out of government and I think that is the most important thing. It means that the Governor’s wife can do it anywhere in the world.
“The passion she has for women’s football is fantastic. Her passion is also what is driving us to make sure we make it a better tournament.
“I think this year’s edition will be fantastic because we are really going above the line. What we want to do is to make people amazed with what they will be seeing.
“What we want to achieve is to have the best pre-season tournament that is ever hosted in the state,” the MOC chairman said.
Resounding on behalf of the sub-committees’ members, Peter Okonkwo, Head of Secretariat and member of the Media Sub-Committee, appreciated the opportunity given them to serve.
He then promised a more successful organisation.
“We will look at the way the tournament has been conducted over time, leading to its being adjudged one of the best by FIFA.
”We will then use that as a benchmark for this edition and the organisation of other similar events in this country.
“We have done it the first and second time and this is the third. When the wine gets older, it gets better.
“So, we are not learning on the job, we have done it before and we can assure that we will do better this time,” Okonkwo said.
NAN
