Chairman of 1XBET Nigeria Limited, Dr Femi Babalola has explained why his company is ready to sponsor the Lagos community football competition tagged ‘1XBET’, saying it is aimed at discovering and nurturing budding talents.
Speaking at a press conference held on Monday afternoon in Lagos, Babalola said sponsoring a grassroots football competition in Lagos is to contribute their own quota to football development in the state and Nigeria at large.
According to him, the sponsorship will move from Lagos to other states of the country saying plans have been concluded to actualize this because talents abound 8n other states of the federation.
“We are sponsoring this tournament as part of our corporate social responsibility and we also want to contribute our own quota to the football development in the state as well as the country at large and I believe that the 1XBET Cup which would be played across designated centres in the state will witness the discovery of many more raw talent, “he said.
He added”Our aim is to discover and nurture talents and also to promote peace, unity and oneness among our communities in the state. We all are aware that football is the only language that brings all ethnic in the land together and also preaches love, so we are latching on this to bring all communities together under one umbrella.”
The competition runs from 3rd October to 10th November.
While speaking, the consultant and former Green Eagles player Waidi Akanni expressed gratitude to the sponsor, saying that the football tournament would live up to expectations in terms of organisation, officiating, media coverage and security.
“It is a dream come true today because I started having discussions with the company four months ago and we were able to reach an agreement and today everything has come to fulfilment. It is going to be an exciting tournament for the participants. I am using this medium to thank 1XBET company for this initiative and I wish all the teams best of luck,” he said.
It was disclosed at the briefing that the winner would go home with one million naira while the second-placed team would get five hundred thousand naira and three hundred thousand for the third-placed team with two hundred and fifty thousand to be shared among individual award winners.
A total of 40 teams are expected to take part in the competition which kicks off on 3 October across designated centres in the state.
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