Honourable Yahaya Suleiman Kwande is a frontrunner to take over as the Nigeria Football Federation NFF president after declaring his intention to run for the position over the weekend.

The NFF elective congress has been scheduled to hold on September 30th in Benin City, the Edo State capital following the approval at the just concluded Annual General Assembly in Lagos State.

Posters seen on the social media over the weekend indicated that the Executive Board member of the current NFF board, Yahaya-Kwande, is preparing to declare his intentions to be the next NFF President.

Posters, produced by Plateau State Football stakeholders encouraging him to run for the position, were shared on various sporting WhatsApp groups detailing his desire to be the man to rescue the round lethal game in Nigeria.

The former chairman of Mighty Jet and the vice chairman of Plateau FA, who promised to run open governance which includes Equality, sustainable development for humanity, quality Welfare for players and staff, is among many contenders for the position declared vacant by the outgoing NFF president, Amaju Pinnick.

According to write-ups and roadmap on the poster, the former member of the House of Representatives is set to return the soccer glory of the nation back to its glorious day.

While he also looks forward towards making accountability, transparency and honesty his watchword, his plans is also to attract corporate sponsorship for the development of football in the country.

Hon. Kwande has held several positions in the country’s football house and has never been indicted for any form of corruption or misappropriation.

He has held position of Match Commissioner Appointment Committee Chairman, Chairman Finance Committee of the NFF among others.

A grass-root Mobilizer, Honourable Yahaya Suleiman Kwande, is also set to create a platform where the Sports ministry, ex-internationals and the NFF can share ideas capable of promoting the development of football In Nigeria.

With several other contestants flying their posters on the social media platforms, it has been revealed that Hon. Kwande will have to contend with some of his current executive board members who are also in the race to be the number one man running the affairs of football in the country.

Organized by the Supporters Club of Plateau United Football Club of Jos, the competition which is tagged Coach Fidelis Ilechukwu Football Tournament will feature sixteen teams from Jos and environs.

Chairman, Supporters Club of Plateau , Umar Shehu said the essence of the competition is to honour Coach Fidelis Ilechukwu for his hard work, dedication and commitment to duty which propelled the team to finished second in the Nigeria Professional Football League and pick a continental ticket in the process.

He explained that the Supporters Club are motivated to organize the competition in his name after turning the fortunes of the team around in his first season at the club and for carrying them along in the scheme of things especially his support to its indigent members, something that never happened in the history of the club.

“We are really happy with him because he has been supporting us morally and financially since he assumed work here last year and we felt we appreciate him by naming this tournament after him.

An elated Coach Fidelis Ilechukwu who expressed gratitude to the Supporters Club for the honour done to him, Commended the Supporters Club for their passion and commitment to the cause of the club noting that the team would not have achieved this much in his very first season in the club.

Ilechukwu who is on the verge of finishing second on the league table and picking a continental ticket at the process , commended the Club’s General Manager, Pius Henwan and the Technical Director, Ahmed Ibrahim for their unflinching support and described the duo as the best in the NPFL.

He assured that he will continue to support the competition which will also serve as an avenue to discover young budding talents, appealed to the participating teams to play according to the rules.

The competition kicks-off Thursday 14th July, 2022 by 3:30pm at the Rwang Pam Stadium Jos and three other designated centres in the city of Jos.

General Manager of the Club, Pius Henwan and Technical Director , Ahmed Ibrahim aka Coach Bros are among dignitaries that are expected to grace the opening ceremony.

Signed:

Albert Dakup.

Media Officer,

Plateau United Football Club of Jos.

Omobolanle Osoba, who also doubles as the owner of Lagos based Nationwide League One side, B.Y.T. Academical, has decided to support the SSI Premiership with a sum of ten thousand naira(#10,000) for the player of every month till the end of the season and a fifty thousand naira cash(#50,000) for the Most Valuable Player of the season.

He continues:
“Outstanding players from the leagur will get an opportunity to attend trials at B. Y. T Academical FC also get to participate in a scouting tournament in Lagos between May to July involving the head of scouting of a second division team in Denmark and the chief scout of a top Swedish club.”

A very excited Secretary of the SSI Premiership, Nathaniel Mobolale, commends the huge and encouraging step taken by Mr. Osoba.
“With the pool of young talents in this league, i can assure him that he will never regret partnering with the SSI Premiership.”

Mees Palace Football Academy will be looking to retain their titles in
the upcoming Tsemba Wummen U14 and U16 youth league in Plateau State
this weekend, having unveiled their squads for the 2021 season.

The unveiling was done with panache as team photos (group and
individual) were released to the public via the academy’s social media
accounts.

Affectionately known as the ‘Blue Panthers’, Mees Palace Football
Academy has taken a giant stride towards retaining the title they won
in 2019 by unveiling a crack team to feature in the U14 and U16
categories of the 2021 season of the Tsemba Wummen Youth League.

The league, which started in two years ago, is played on a home and
away format by 20 youth teams across Plateau State for the biggest
youth football diadem in Nigeria.

CEO of Mees Palace Football Academy Emmanuel Adukwu who is also the
sponsor of the league reiterated his desire to promote youth football
to the next level in Nigeria while hoping his team retains the title.

“We are into the second edition of this league which was formed to
give budding young talents in Plateau State the platform to showcase
their abilities while also honoring the life of my late friend Tsemba
Wummen who was a visionary when it comes to youth development,” Adukwu
stated.

“The young lads at Mees Palace are being tutored in various facets of
life apart from football. We want them to grow and be model citizens
that can contribute a lot to Plateau and Nigeria.

“This league will keep the youth busy and also help to promote their
talents so the world can see what we have here in Plateau State.

Technical Adviser of the team Tony Ogharanduku also believes his team
will be ready when the league starts next weekend.

The former Mighty Jets and FC Taraba coach has been one of the brains
behind the football revolution at Mees Palace is optimistic his side
will lift the league title once again.
“We have been working hard behind the scenes to get the boys ready for
the commencement of the league,” he revealed.

“It is always tough for us every season but the boys have been working
hard to see that they do their best to retain the title. The U14s and
U16s are ready for the challenges ahead and hopefully, with hard work
and determination, we shall succeed. Ogharanduku added.

We finished the U13 league with a total of 92 points last time out to
win the title, with our talismanic attacker Ahmed Musa notching up 33
goals to claim the top scorer’s gong.

 After dominating the Jos Chillin’ competition in December of 2020,
our boys will be hoping to make back-to-back wins in one of the
leading Youth competitions in Northern Nigeria.

The Tsemba Wummen league is a 20-team league that is in two categories
– the U14 and U16 category and it will be contested by two teams in a
home and away format.

The match, which was organized to celebrate the birthday of the owner of Mees Palace FA, Emmanuel Adukwu and to prepare for the forthcoming Tsemba Wummen marathon league, saw the host, Mees Palace FA beat Jazzy Stars FA 5-4.

The Coach Tony Ogaranduku tutored side went ahead in the 14th minute through their star attacker, Ahmed Musa. The Panthers got their remaining goals via the boots of John David and Kelvin Adeyemo,who both got a brace each.
Jazzy Stars FA,who came from two goals down to draw 4-4 before succumbing to a last minute winner from their host,got their goals from Ajang Udakudi, Jehoshaphat David and a brace from Shedrack Patrick.
The Galaxies,as Jazzy Stars are fondly called, will host Mees Palace in a yet to be fixed date as both prepare for the forthcoming Tsemba Wummen League.

Super Eagles of Nigeria captain, Ahmed Musa, has supported the maiden edition of the Plateau North Senatorial district grassroots football tournament with a whopping six million naira for the eventual champions, second and third placed teams.

Ahmed Musa, who was so impressed with the main purpose of staging the tournament aimed at promoting peace, unity and reconciliation in Plateau North senatorial zone by Senator I. D. Gyang, decried the fact that people are no longer free in their movement and relationship, unlike when he was growing up in the said senatorial zone.
According to him, “Its so sad that people don’t freely relate well with one another, unlike those days when we were kids going from house to house to celebrate and feast during Christmas and Sallah! Its strange that this fun-filled moment we used to look forward to are nearly not in existence again. Am giving my own little contribution to this project because it will go a long way in uniting people in the senatorial zone and promote peace, apart from the fact that it will also unearth hidden talents from the grassroots level.”

The tournament, which will see teams in the 73 electoral wards battle themselves out for the ultimate prize money of 3 million naira, 2 million naira for the runners up team and 1 million naira for the third placed team, will kick start next week with the preliminary rounds in six local government areas like Riyom, Barkin Ladi, Jos East, Bassa, Jos South and Jos North.

In his own speech, the sponsor and the brain behind the grassroots tournament tagged, Plateau North Senatorial District Peace, Unity and Reconciliation Football Tournament, Senator, representing Plateau North in the Senate, Istifanus Gyang, said “Aside from promoting peace, unity and reconciling people of this great senatorial district, I want to also see talents from this district become another Ahmed Musa both at the national and international level.”

The tournament which will be an annual event according to Senator I.D. Gyang, saw kits presented to all the teams in the 73 electoral wards of Plateau State yesterday.

In the first semi finals slated for today in this maiden edition, Jazzy Stars Football Academy will confront Victory Football Club by 3:30pm, while the second semi final will see Corinthians fc against FC Izam.
According to the chief organizer, Endurance Victory Emmanuel, “The semi finals will be in a league format to give Coach Ilechukwu that believes in young players, opportunity of seeing these players in more than two games in order to access them very well and the successful ones will fulfil their dreams of playing professional football at the highest level in Nigeria.”

Here are the results of group matches played before the coronavirus halted everything:
In Group A: El kanemi 3 Highland Stars 0,
Jazzy Stars FA 2 FC Izam 1, Highland Stars 0 FC Izam 3(W/O), Jazzy Stars 3 Highland Stars 0(W/O), FC Izam 3 Elkanemi Junior 0, Jazzy Stars 2 Elkanemi 1.
Group A Standing:
Jazzy Stars 3 9pts
FC Izam 3 6pts
Elkanemi 3 3pts
Highland 3 0pt.
In group B:
Corinthians fc 4 Ajester fc 3, Ajester 2 Victory Academy 5, Corinthians 2 Victory 1, Future Stars 0 Corinthians 4, Ajester 2 Future Stars 0, Victory 3 Future Stars 1.
Group B Standing:
Corinthians fc 3 9pts
Victory fc 3 6pts
Ajester fc 3 3pts
Future Stars 3 0pt.

Hence, Jazzy Stars FA and FC Izam qualify from group A, while Corinthians fc and Victory fc qualify from group B to a semi final that will be played in a league format.

Hon. Longbap who was speaking as guest on a popular sports show on the Plateau, Total Football Extra on Peace 90.5 FM,Jos with Sammy Adesoji on Sunday, noted that the new programme which have been scheduled to get under after the lockdown were designed to produce more talented young players fit enough to play for Nigeria’s Future Eagles and Golden Eaglets.

He said the association’s programs which have been arranged to meet with Nigeria Football Federation, NFF’s requirements on age grade national teams have produced lots of players including Super Eagles’ defender Chidozie Awaziem, among others.

“We have a lots of plans starting from the age group tournament, growing up to the senior championship, this is just to keep in touch with NFF’s new guidelines that for you to play in the U17 (Golden Eaglets) you must be from an academy and must be a registered academy.

“So we don’t want to pick anybody out of card academies because and we believe we would get correct age group players that we’ll nurture for Under 17. So all registered academies must have a complete data of a child and we cannot have that without having a similar tournament that will bring out the best for us to produce for the national team.

“So, we call it future eagles, its a program that is suppose to start from the grasaroots and we are keying into it. We’ve been sending a lot of players to the national teams.

“For the records, Chidozie Awaziem is one of the products of youth programmes from Plateau State, and he’s making us proud with his performance and we have more of him here.

“We have primary school competition for U13, U15 which all Local Government Areas are participating.

“We are planning to meet with the ministry of education to revamp the Principal’s Cup which will be one of our major programme we will be looking at from next year,” he said.

Hon. Longbap who is also a member of NFF’s Football Reform Committee however appealed to soccer faithful in the state be patient and stay safe from the Coronavirus pandemic which has paralyzed major activities including football.

And to football fraternity on the Plateau who are eager to have football, which has been under ban back to live, says:
“I want to appeal to football family that we should be patient, this Coronavirus is still having its way, we need to follow NCDC’s guidelines to the core, and I’m assuring you that as soon as we are able to meet up with requirements from Covid19, football will come and we’ll participate.”