Desirous of contributing to the development of sports and football in Nigeria, Pay TV company, StarTimes, is working with VOE Foundation to host the FC Bayern Youth Cup tournament in Nigeria, the first time an African country is taking part in the competition.
The FC Bayern Youth Cup Nigeria 2018 is an U-16 tournament for boys born between January 1, 2002 and December 31, 2003. The tournament will see the best 10 players selected to represent Team Nigeria and play at the world finals in Germany.
The competition has three stages; the national qualifiers, the national finals and the world finals in Germany.
The national qualifiers will take place in eight locations across the country; Kano, Jos, Kaduna, Enugu, Port Harcourt, Lagos Island, Lagos mainland and the Federal Capital Territory-Abuja.
“12 teams per state are expected to compete across all the locations with champions qualifying for the National Finals.The national qualifiers will commence on the January 13, next year in Abuja and end on February 25, in Lagos while the national finals will be played on March 10-11 2018 in Abuja†that’s according to the Brand and Marketing Director at StarTimes, Qasim Elegbede.
Explaining further, the Director of the Nigerian tournament and representative of VOE Foundation, Victor Edeh, noted that “Team Nigeria will be selected at the national finals by the attending FC Bayern representative.
The FC Bayern representative will stay a couple of days in Abuja for the finals and also to conduct trainings with local players. Before the final tournament in FC Bayern’s Allianz Arena in Munich, the 10 young talents from Nigeria and other participating countries will enjoy a five-day training camp with FC Bayern in Munich.
Hasan Salihamidzic, sports director of FC Bayern, is proud that Nigeria for the first time was part of the FC Bayern Youth Cup. “The FC Bayern Youth Cup is a great platform for young players from all over the world to showcase their talent.
The chance to win a trip to Munich and take part in a five-day training camp with FC Bayern is unique. The young players from Nigeria will meet FC Bayern 1st team players, visit the last Bundesliga match of the season and play the final tournament just one day after in the Allianz Arena.â€
The FC Bayern Youth Cup is an international 7v7 tournament series for U-16 teams representing different countries and has been hosted annually since 2012.
The competition has seen teams from Asia, Europe, North and South America. Team Nigeria will be the first African team to take part in the competition. Participants are to visitwww.youthcupnigeria.com for registration.
