Tella U-17 Tourney: Organisers Decry Poor Turnout

Organisers of the annual Tella U-17 Football Champuionship in Ibadan have lamented the  poor response of teams to the fourth edition of the competition.

Registration for the tourney began on June 17 and ended yesterday.

The Nigeria Football Coaches Association, Oyo State Chapter, had initiated the competition to honour their late colleague Adeyemi Tella, winner of the 2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

Addressing newsmen last Thursday in Ibadan, the Chairman of the Organising Committee, Coach Rafiu Salami, said that the   registration of teams for the competition had been poor.

“Invitation letters had been sent out for the past two months to prospective participants, but the responses we got so far is not encouraging.

“What Coach Tella, whom we are trying to immortalise with this tourney, did for our country seem to have quickly faded away from people’s minds,” he said.

He said that teams from states in the south west geo-political  zone were expected to participate in the tourney scheduled to kick off from July 26 to August 15.

The chairman said that the objective of the tourney was to keep alive the memory of the late U-17 World Cup winning coach.

Salami said that another reason for organizing the competition was to discover talented and truly U-17 players to sustain the high profile Nigeria had achieved in the category.

Salami appealed for support for the competition from corporate bodies nad public spirited individuals to immortalise Tella.