Judex Okoro, Calabar
The fourth edition of the Northwest grassroots football tournament has kicked off in Calabar Municipal.
The grassroots tournament, which is solely sponsored by Northwest Petroleum, started in 2014 with over 10 teams participating.
The aim of the local football fiesta is to discover local talents and about six players, therefrom, are now playing for Rovers Unicem FC of Calabar.
This year’s event was declared open by the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Mr Williams Jones Eteng, at Ikot Ishie playground.
Shortly after declaring it open, Eteng said the state will create a budgetary provision for talent-hunting in sports, especially football, to enable Cross River regain her number one position in football and other sports.
He recalled that the first football team came from Calabar, thus, the need for the competition.
“From what I have seen now, the state can reclaim its position in the nation if we keep to the model of bringing them young, and going forward, the best talents. I have seen a lot of talents today, and I think if we keep it up, we will discover a lot of players who will play for Cross River State.