Osun Set To Host Mini Football Championship In April

Osun Set To Host Mini Football Championship In April

Alfred Kadiri

All is now set for the maiden edition of the Osun State Mini Football Championship 2023, reports BSNSports.com.ng.

The mini-football championship is being organised by the Osun State Mini Football Association to galvanize an aim of creating a youth-centric, sustainable football culture in a genuine effort to revive the passionate Nigerian sporting system.

MiniFootball is a joint term for s e v e r a l s m an l l - s I d e d variations of football mainly played in 5/6/7 a-side format that could be played on natural pitches and artificial turfs.

The main difference between Minifootball and conventional football is the number of playing players at a time, duration of time, size of the pitch, goal posts etc and some other rules guiding football participation.

Like there is no offside rule in Minifootball. Minifootball is the fastest-growing amateur sport in the world and its popularity has increased globally.

Minifootball is also being played professionally in some European, African and Asian countries.

The championship is set to start on April 8th till 28th, 2023, and it's expected to hold in five zones such as ZONE 1- Ilesa and Ile-Ife, ZONE 2- Ede, Gbongan, ZONE 3- Okuku and Ikirun, ZONE 4- Osogbo, while the Zonal Final is billed to hold at Osogbo Township Stadium, Osun.

Osun State Minifootball Association Chairman, Otunba Femi Kazeem said that the championship was tactically conceived to reflect the fundamentals of the game of football.

The state Minifootball championship is based on integrating talents into the state Minifootball League which will be the bedrock of the national championships, leagues and other competitions.

“Our objectives are the discovery of talents of young ages, setting the stage to display natural passion and flair for mini-footballing, engendering competitive spirits among the participants, inculcating discipline, ethics and skills into the young footballers as requisites for career development, nurturing and managing the discovered talents into stardom and creating the organized platform for productive engagements among the footballers and the Associations.”

Kazeem announced that works are ongoing with the LOC (Local Organising Committee) also inaugurated a few weeks ago, and also working round the clock to make the competition a successful one.

He made the preparation of State Government known on the issue of security to ensure a hitch-free competition.

We intend to get the attention of the well-meaning people of Osun State and Nigerians to imbibe the culture of this game into their itinerary. We will be attracting individuals and cooperate bodies to have clubs to participate in our competitions

However, marketing our state championship and other competitions for sponsorships will be both beneficial to the would-be sponsors, stakeholders and Minifootball in general.

We already have seasoned administrators as members of the State Executive Council.