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Fab-5 grassroots school football tourney holds on Friday

The final of the FAB-5 Football Challenge, an Under-13 5-a-side football competition for public schools in Lagos State, will take place on May 26, 2017 at the Campos Mini Stadium to coincide with the Children’s Day celebrations.

This year’s competition screened schools from the state’s five educational districts. 16 schools will participate in the final tournament that will see the winners receive prizes including the opportunities for the best outstanding players to be enrolled in the FCBarcelona Soccer School in Lagos.

Fab-5 Football
Fab-5 Football

The Lagos State Sports Commission has thrown its weight behind the competition this year as it fits into the vision of growing domestic sport.

“The LSSC is supporting FAB-5 with the logistics that they require to pull off the competition because we believe in creating opportunities for young people across our state to show their talent and be discovered,” said Deji Tinubu, chairman of the LSSC.

Started in 2012, Fab-5 has received participation of more than 2000 pupils from over 200 public primary schools spread across Lagos State. Twin brothers Taiwo and Kehinde Rahmon, who were discovered at the maiden tournament in 2012 and have benefited from the Scholarship and Mentoring programme are now currently playing in the Lagos Principals Cup 2017.

Fab-5 Football
Fab-5 Football

Despite its success, organisers of FAB-5 have continued to reach out to corporate partners and encourage them to support such domestic and grassroot sports to ensure deliverables and proper running of the lofty project.

“We continue to reach out to private organisations to support our grassroots initiatives and sports in general in order to assist the development of our young people,” Dare Amokeodo, Project Manager of Pet-Bamok Limited, organisers of the event.

“It is not enough to admire the successes of Anthony Joshua, Dele Alli, Alex Iwobi and many other Nigerians in diaspora, we need to invest in our own young people at home and create an environment where they can thrive and excel like their counterparts in developed countries.''

The Fab-5 2017 tournament is also supported by the Blaugrana Sports International, Lagos Internal Revenue Service (LIRS), RiteFoods, Bigi & Indomie Noodles.