CAF Schools Championship: Nigeria’s flag bearer in great start, mauls Togo 4-0
By Rasheed Adewuyi
Nigeria’s representatives in this year’s CAF African Schools Football Championship, National Grammar School, Nike, Enugu State were off to a roaring start with a 4-0 defeat of their Togolese counterparts, as the WAFU B Zonal Finals of the championship began in Lomé on Thursday.
National Grammar School had emerged champions of a national championship staged in the Federal Capital, Abuja 2nd – 9th November 2023, which entertained a total of 11 teams from nine States of the federation. There were teams from Yobe, Enugu, Plateau, Borno, Oyo, Ogun, Taraba and Kwara States as well as the FCT in the U15 competition. In the female category, FOSLA Academy (the stellar football plus education project of former NFF President, Alhaji Sani Lulu Abdullahi), emerged champions of a three-team competition and is flying Nigeria’s flag in the female event.
Representatives from Nigeria, Benin Republic, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and host Togo are converging in Lomé for the four-day WAFU B zonal finals that will end on Sunday, with matches at the Stade Municipal de Kegue. The winner in Lomé, where the competition is being played in a round-robin format, will fly WAFU B’s flag at the continental finals slated for April 2024.
The zonal finals are being staged alongside the WAFU B Congress, being attended by President of Nigeria Football Federation, Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Gusau and the General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi.
Over 800,000 boys and girls from 28,000 schools across 44 countries are taking part in this season’s CAF African Schools Football Championship, which is the brainchild of the President of Confederation of African Football, Dr. Patrice Motsepe. Billionaire industrialist Motsepe is committed to contributing to the development of Africa’s next generation of football talent and future leaders, with a number of noble developmental programme subsumed in the Football Championship.
