- Falode thumbs up Gov. Ambode for aiding devt of female football
Duro Ikhazuagbe
The maiden Nigeria Women Football League (NWFL) Champions Shield, has been slated to hold on March 4 at the Agege Township Stadium.
League champions, Nasarawa Amazons and Aiteo Cup winners, Rivers Angels, are the two teams to slug it out to know which of the two from the outgone season is the true champion.
Speaking at the unveiling of the tournament at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos wednesday, NWFL Chairperson, Aisha Falode, was full of thanks to Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode for his fatherly interventions in the development of women football.
“We cannot thank Governor Ambode enough for he has shown that he represents the new face of leadership in both sports and arts. Lagos has been the leader in youth development efforts since he became governor of this state.
“We knew he would help us to take the women game forward, but we must confess that we did not expect the extent he has gone to help us,†Falode stressed at the briefing.
She emphasized that the competition was part of the board’s drive to give the league a solid footing and the needed flavour to attract potential partners for the women game in the country.
“This is a top-class NWFL programme by all standards and it promises to live up to its billing.
“The league champions, Nasarawa Amazons and Aiteo Cup winners, Rivers Angels, will contest for the Champions Shield. You can call it a revenge match you will not be wrong considering how the Lafia ladies almost reduced the Garden City team to a bystanders in the 2017 NWPL Super 4 in Benin City.
“Lagos populace is certainly going to witness what they have not seen previously about women football when the two gladiators confront each other at the Agege Stadium on Sunday, March 04.
“This is another wonderful opportunity for us to showcase the football loving Nigerian populace especially the football loving people of Lagos state, our hosts, the beauty and quality of our women league as well as demonstrate to the corporate world the benefits of partnering with us and how ready we are to make such partnership work mutually.â€
Also speaking at the event, Chairman of the Lagos State Sports Commission, Dr. Kweku Tandoh, said the state’s support for the NWFL programme was in line with the expansive programme to move sports forward by leveraging on women football.
“His excellency, Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode did not hesitate to buy into the Aisha Falode led NWFL board’s decision to host the Champions Shield in Lagos because of his conviction in using sports as a potent tool to drive the human development campaign of the state as well as making the Lagos hub of sports in the West African sub-region
“The state will gladly consider hosting the NWFL Champions Shield once again should the league body ask for it,†Tandoh stressed.
Before the Champions Shield match, the NWFL will hold its Congress on March 3, 2018 as well as mentor over 1,000 young school girls on the need to blend sports with their education.
