The Director of Lagos City League, Kingsley Mba, has disclosed that the football league is to develop and promote the sport at the grassroots.
He noted that the league was born last year as an avenue for grassroots clubs to participate and play competitive matches with one another across Lagos State.
According to him, the league was established due to the urge to promote and showcase the young talents to the world and give participating clubs a sense of belonging.
There are 20 participating clubs across the state with Diadem Stallions FC, Ms. Success FC, and IJB FC representing Oshodi-Isolo in the league.
The league originator said the participating clubs were admitted having shown a high level of sportsmanship.
He explained: “The league is to help the kids learn how to distinguish between effort and ability. It also helps the players to showcase their talents to the World. Though this is the first edition of the league, participating clubs have shown a high level of commitment, cooperation, and professionalism.”
He added that another reason why Lagos city league came on board was to counter other leagues which were exploiting clubs without any of the participating clubs getting the benefit.
“After participating in other leagues with my club and other clubs without positive feedback, I came into conclusion that we could also have our own league which will be regulated without any bias.”
He further informed that the league has been digitised having created a database for the clubs to register their players online, a move he described as the best of its kind in grassroots football leagues.
MBA said the sponsorship is the major challenge to the league, saying getting sponsors has remained the most difficult task.
He said the league could not be run without the financial support of some individuals and or organisations considering the huge amount needed to organise competitions.
