Bayelsa State preliminaries of the 2025 President Federation Cup kicks-off across the state on Friday, February 7, 2025.
A statement titled "Programme of Activities", signed by the Secretary of the state Football Association, Mr Diseye Nwankwe indicates that the draws were conducted on Wednesday, February 5, 2025.
According to the statement, the 1st round of matches for Men will kick-off on Friday, February 7, 2025 while semi final matches are billed for Thursday, February 20, 2025.
Semi final matches for the female category of the oldest football competition in Nigeria, will hold on Tuesday, February 18, 2025.
The Men and Women's finals have been scheduled to hold on Sunday, February 23rd, 2025. The statement however noted that the dates are subject to change.
According to the state Football Association Secretary, Mr Diseye Nwankwe, only six clubs registered for the competition in the male category. The situation is even worse with the female category in which only three teams indicated interest to participate in the competition.
Niger Delta Connect gathered that one possible reason for the poor response this year is finance. Nwankwe confirmed that the amount for registration last year for the male category was N100,000 while the registration form for female category was N80,000. This year however, the registration fee has jumped to N200,000 for Men and N150,000 for Women.
The relatively low number of clubs has affected the competition this year. Teams will have very few matches to play. For instance, in the female category, two teams will lock horns, with one team on bye. The team on bye will have only one match to play and that is the final match.
Four of the the six teams in the Men's category will be divided into two pools, while Bayelsa United and one other unnamed team are on bye. The two winners will then square up against Bayelsa United and the other unnamed team on bye. with the winners playing the final on Sunday, February 23, 2025.
Any club that fails to honour its match has a hefty fine to pay. According to Ruth David, the Director of Competitions of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), "... any Club that fails to honour any match at the State level, after the draw has been released, will pay a fine of N500,000. If any Club should fail to honour a match during the National competition, that Club will be slammed with a fine of N1 million".
The national play-off of this year’s competition has been scheduled for March 5, with the national draw one week later, while the rounds of 64, 32 and 16 are scheduled for March 19, April 2, and April 16, 2025 respectively. The quarter-finals have been slated for May 3 and 4, with the semi-finals fixed for May 17 and 18, 2025.
The state F.A. Secretary, Diseye Nwankwe in a chat with Niger Delta Connecct, said the F.A. is very ready and prepared for the kick-off of the competition.
