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Players at the inaugural Dominion Peace Cup will look to give their best today to catch the eyes of foreign scouts as the scouting programme ends at the Legacy pitch of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.
After two days of matches, the final day is the players’ last chance to put themselves in pole position for a move to foreign clubs and to become the next big stars of Nigerian football.
Five matches are scheduled. Athletic SC 2022 takes on Dominion Excellence, Coal city faces FC Bethel and SCL Nigeria meet Goal Getters.
Adada Warriors had Monday’s biggest result, a 2-0 win over Dominion Excellence. Dominion had beaten Coal City 1-0 on Saturday, and Adada had lost 1-0 to Edel FC. Edel stayed unbeaten on Monday, drawing 0-0 with Glorious Day, and now face Coal City.
Also on Monday, SCL beat Bilada 1-0, and Eagle Elites also beat Bilada 1-0. FC Bethel v Coal City, Athletic SC v Eagle Elites and Eagle Elites v SCL all ended goalless. Four goals were scored across Monday’s five results.
The tournament, organised by Dominion Football Club, is a scouting programme with scouts and agents from European clubs watching from the sidelines. Organiser Benjamin James said teams were brought in from across the country and from outside it, including one from Ghana.
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Among those watching are a scout from a Portuguese club and another working for a Belgian side. Some scouts are club employees and others are agents. James said about six scouts are covering the event.
“We don’t just want to bring people to come and spend all day here,” James said. “We want them to know why they are here: to scout our players and see that they are doing well, so you can take them to Europe and market them.”
He said there is no target number of players. “We cannot specify that we are looking for two or five or six,” he said. “It’s how good the players are. You can market them easily.” He added that the scout from Turkey covering the last day already has a list of the positions his club needs.
Dominion FC proprietor Mrs. Ogechi Agana said the tournament is meant to give young people an equal opportunity in life and keep them productively occupied.
“Football is an international game, and it exposes everybody to great opportunities,” she said. She added that organisers hope the Peace Cup will produce “one or two people” ready for the international stage.
