By Patrick Omorodion

Sponsors of the annual All Nigeria Secondary Schools Football Championships, NNPP/Shell are expecting that the 2013 edition of the competition which enters its 15th year will attract keener attention from football stakeholders as the competition kicks off December 1 with the State Finals.

Vice President of Shell Petroleum Development Company’s (SPDC) Safety, Environment, Sustainable Development and Communications, Mr Tony Attah said their expectation is based on the “view of government’s focus on grass-roots sports development”.

Speaking in Lagos during the week to usher in the 2013 NNPC/Shell Cup, Mr Attah who spoke through Peter Ademoyete said that the competition provides the platform for all students to demonstrate their skills, with a chance to be snapped up by national team coaches into the age-grade teams.

He disclosed that after the State Finals on December 1 and 2, the zonal preliminaries will hold in nine centres namely Yenagoa, Osogbo, Benin, Lokoja, Jalingo, Ilorin, Katsina, Enugu and Akure from December 11 to 15, 2012.

Port Harcourt, Shagamu, Minna and Kaduna, he said, will host the quarterfinals on January 24 and 25, 2013 while the semi finals, final and third place matches will hold in Lagos on February 25 and 27 respectively.

“There will be prize money totaling N8 million for the winning schools as follows, N3.5 million to the overall champion, over N2 million to the runner-up and N1 million to the third place winner,” he disclosed, adding that individual players from the schools will also get some cash prizes for themselves.

Group General Manager of the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), Morrison A. Fiddi added that the NNPC/Shell Cup is “aimed at ensuring that talented youths are able to combine education with developing their football skills and career.”