Owerri the capital of Imo state will be beehive of activities as from August 4th through 13th as the first edition of the SouthEast Women Football Association (SEWFA) Tournament holds among teams in the zone.
Eleven football clubs from the southeast region will converge on the Eastern Heartland for the first of its kind tournament that promises to usher in a rebirth for women football and the empowering of the Nigerian girl child which will help to curb youth restiveness and other vices suffered by the women in the line of making ends meet.
The tournament will also help to discover budding players in the South East for national and international recognition besides helping to retain the status of Imo state as the foremost football hub in the Southeast and beyond.
The organisers of the tournament led by the Chairman, SEWFA, Alex Nzekwem visited the Imo State Commissioner, Honourable Emeka Okoronkwo with the view to solicit Imo Government’s involvement in the competition to make it a grand occasion and they were warmly received with the assurance that Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma is also willing to identify with events that will take the youths off the streets.
He told the organisers to come up with the modalities on what would be needed to make the tournament a hitch free so that the Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma would be made aware of it as soon as possible.
Okoronkwo thanked the organisers for ensuring the tournament is staged in Owerri while wishing them safe trip to their different abodes.
Meanwhile, the organisers held a press conference at the Imo FA Office where they unfolded the reason for the tournament which they said would be first of his kind in the region and thus following the path of similar tournaments that are organised in Lagos and South West region.
The Chief Executive Officer, Imo Strikers Queens, Prince Chidi disclosed that the club owners in the South East are teeming up to organise the tourney to enable the zone’s products to be available for it with the known fact that players of the South East origins have always dominated the ones held in Lagos and other South West states.
Chairman, First Mahi Group of Companies, Chidiebere Eze Onuoha said that efforts have been in place to ensure the tournament takes place and that he would use the tourney to help facilitate some of the outstanding players in it to secure opportunities for foreign deals among others.
Onuoha has already donated a giant trophy and medals expected to be won in the tournament and he also stressed that provisions would be made for some outstanding players in the tournament to be commended.
Awka Angels, Maureen Mmadu Babes, First Mahi Babes, Imo Strikers Queens, Heartland Queens are among the clubs that will take part in the tournament that is expected to have huge mileage from the media while all games are earmarked to be streamed live.
