Technical Director of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Austin Eguavoen and former Super Eagles captain, Daniel Amokachi, have commended sports betting company, 1XBET, for giving opportunities to Nigerian youths to groom their talents.
Speaking at the unveiling of the 1BET Football Tournament trophy and draw ceremony at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Lagos yesterday, both ex-internationals said they didn’t have the kind of opportunities provided by the the sports betting company when they were growing up.
Eguavoen, who is a former Super Eagles player and coach, recalled that tournaments like the 1XBET Tournament “is opportunity for players to show their God-given talents and possibly get the traction that will give wings to their careers as footballers.”
He therefore urged other corporate entities to emulate 1XBET in helping to grow Nigeria sports.
Amokachi stressed that because football unites people more than anything else, “we can use it to unite Nigerians to be great again.”
Fondly called “Da Bull”during his national team days, Amokachi also recalled how in 1996, football (the AFCON) brought South Africans together despite all that they went through in the dark days of apartheid.
“God used the AFCON in 1996 to unite South Africans. Although if Super Eagles had participated as defending champions the story may have been different, Bafana Bafana winning the tournament at home meant so much to the people,” recalled Amokachi.
Chairman of 1XBET, Dr. Femi Babalola while describing the tournament as one of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibilities, pledged to make it a national event in subsequent editions.
At the event attended by several ex-international players like Henry Nwosu, Friday Ekpo, Wasiu Ipaye, Monday Kanu, Friday Elahor, Peter Nieketen, Victor Agali, and others, 40 teams were drawn into groups to play in round-robin format.
The winning team is to receive a gold plated trophy and N1million prize money. The runners up, third place winners and semi finalists will also smile home with several cash prizes courtesy 1XBET.