Season eight of the Prosperity Cup will create a favourable environment for more youths in the state to make it big in football.
Director General of Bayelsa State Governor's Football Tournament, Mr Ono Akpe dropped the hint in an interview with journalists ahead of the tournament's kick-off.
My Akpe, who noted that the governor is passionate in seeing youths in the state earn a living through sports, said all the outstanding players at the local government level, irrespective of the point their clubs get knocked out, will be given the rare opportunity to showcase their skills before the football scouts.
He said that apart from increasing the prize money to one million naira for local government champions and five hundred thousand naira for runners up, this edition would see all the outstanding players in the local government areas selected to form a team that would proceed to the latter rounds of the competition.
Expatiating on the selected local government area teams comprising all the outstanding players of the various council areas, Mr. Akpe said the essence was to ensure that no good player is left out because his team exited the tournament in the preliminary rounds.
Previously, only players of the two top teams in each local government area that proceeded to the final stages of the competition, where football scouts are on ground to watch them and the lucky ones get selected. But in this edition, all players who are good but whose teams could not make it to the local government level finals, would be pooled together at the local government level with such players proceeding to the latter rounds of the competition under the watchful eyes of the foreign scouts.
According to him, the governor’s direct involvement in the competition has driven members of the Central Organizing Committee (COC) to give their very best, adding that the selection of outstanding players at the local government level of the competition was the governor’s idea to ensure that players who did not make it to the money-spinning stage will also have the opportunity of being watched by foreign scouts.
Reacting to this innovation, a football enthusiast, Jones Perekeme said "it is a very good innovation. It gives all players a level playing ground to test their skills before the scouts in Yenagoa. If you are good, you can be selected by the scouts and can travel abroad. It is a good development. That is the essence of grassroots football development".
Mr. Akpe asserted that the vision of the organizers at the end of season seven was to see more than ten players plying their trade with different European clubs, stating that the organizers of the showpiece are desirous to give the youths in the state a better life.
The tournament kick-off later this month.
