Inspired by
the way pre-season tournament in Asia and America attract top flight European
teams, Nigeria’s ex-international midfielder, Mutiu Adepoju, conceived the idea
of staging similar tournament in Nigeria. As soon as Lagos State government
bought the idea, they decided to name it: Lagos International Football
Tournament (LIFT).
LIFT plan to
grow its brand reputation to become the coolest pre-season tournament and
destination in the world. Wahid Oshodi, Lagos state commissioner for sports
said.” We’re very optimistic of the future. Lagos state is the home of football
in Nigeria and LIFT will surely get all the brand reputation it requires.” “As
we all know, anything Lagos state governor, Babatunde Fashola, is involved
grows in leaps and bounds and LIFT is just one of them.”
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| Mutiu Adepoju |
Adepoju,
popularly known as headmaster, who is the initiator of the tournament said: “LIFT
is aimed at creating a platform that would attract top flight teams to Nigeria
during pre-season. It is also aimed at exposing these foreign teams to the vast
football talents in Africa.”
Imagine
teams like Manchester United , Barcelona, Bayern Munich match up with Kano
Pillar, Enyimba, Enugu Rangers or some African Teams like Esperance, Asec
Mimosa, Accra Oak, Coton Sports… in a pre season Tournament. It’ll be a
complete sell out in a city like Lagos.
In Lagos,
Clubs like Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Barcelona… have such a large
fan base. With a fairly cool tropical sunshine between July and August, something
similar to summer. It’s a good time to
enjoy beach football, at the various resorts in the city. Schools are usually
on holiday and lots of youngsters travel down to the city to seek fun. This event
may just be it, in this football crazy country.
KICK OFF
TIME
The
tournament which was scheduled for July is now ready to kick off from September
5th – 8th at Teslim Balogun stadium. it’s expected that
invited teams, Asanti Kotoko of Ghana, Al Alhy of Egypt, then Kano Pillars and
the host team, Eko All stars, Will be competing in the maiden edition.
Chairman,
Lagos State football Association, Seyi Akinwumi said, “The delay was good for
the tournament. We want to get the organization right at the first time because
we ‘re serious at building a world class brand for LIFT. With what we are
putting in place now, in term of partnership and Logistics, we sincerely hope
to see the participation of top European teams in the near future. He further
said.”All the teams that will be participating in the maiden edition, Asanti
Kotoko, Al Alhy, Kano Pillars and Eko All stars, have all confirmed that they
will be at the tournament.
Despite the
optimism expressed by the organizers, some sports commentators like Alex Opone,
still have some reservations about the annual tournament. He said, “Security
concern in Nigeria and the fact that Lagos is known for fans hooliganism may
hinder the interest and participation of most foreign teams. Moreover, the lack
of proper scheduling and execution of fixtures in Nigerian league may also
hinder the full participation of our local club sides. As we all know, Nigerian
league doesn’t follow world football calendar and the league may still be on
during European pre –season.
Well, these are some of the things the organizers
has taken into consideration.
