By Demola Oladele

The Speaker of Oyo State House of Assembly, Rt. Honourable Michael Adesina Adeyemo has assured the sports lovers that sports will survive in Oyo State despite all the challenges facing the sports activities and we will utilize the facilities available to get what we want from sports in the State. He said this at the opening ceremony of the 2017 Oyo State Speaker’s Cup Football Competition held at Adamasingba Stadium, Ibadan.

90 different teams will be participating in this competition across the State. The teams has been grouped into six Zones and the zones are Oyo Zone, Ibarapa Zone, Oke-ogun Zone, Ogbomosho Zone, Ibadan City Zone and Ibadan Less City Zone. The Honorable Speaker affirms that talents abound across the State and by organizing competitions like this, the State will be able to discover best players to represent the State in different competition across the nation.

Rt. Honorable Adeyemo promised that the Oyo state Speaker’s Cup competition will continue every year till he leaves office. He further promised to fully support principal’s cup in the State because many of those that went to public school gained from sports and some of them are now playing successfully in foreign countries and earning foreign exchange for the nation.. He urged the officials and the referees to be fair to all participants so that the spirit of this competition will not be down and the true winner will be discovered.

In his opinion, the Chairman Committee on Sports in Oyo State house of Assembly, Honourable Fatai Adesina said that the essence of this competition is to stop importing players to play for 3SC of Oyo State.Oyo State Shooting Stars Sports Club (3SC) a.ka. Oluyole Warriors.  The Chairman House Committee on Sports said if a player is discovered in Oyo state, such player will be more committed to the cause of the State. He urged everybody to support sports because sports can curb crime.

The State Commissioner for Youths and Sports, Mr. Abayomi Oke congratulates the Honourable Speaker for organizing this competition to fish out talents across the state. He opines that the focus of the Oyo State Government is to get back to tap the grassroots because talents are numerous at the grassroots for footballing.

Later in the day, the opening match started between Zartech Football Club and Abbey Lincoln F.C. both from Ibadan. After 90 minutes of play, 45 minutes for each half, Zartech F.C. defeated Abbey Lincoln F.C. 2-1. Kehinde Adewale with jersey number 7 scored the first goal for Zartech F.C. at exact 17 minutes of play. It was equalized through a free kick at the 44th minute of the first half by Yinka Joseph of Abbey Lincoln F.C. with jersey number 26.

Elijah Moses with Jersey number 8 got the winning goal for Zartech F.C. at the 83rd minute of the game. Zartech FC. will later play against Christi United F.C. of Ibadan on Wednesday 11th October 2017 at Railway Football field, Ibadan by 10am while Abbey Lincoln is out of the competition because of their loss to Zartech F.C.

The fixtures for the competition have been released on zone by zone basis. There will be champion for each of the zones. All the fixtures are here published first by the Public Times to enable football lovers to keep trend and watch the matches.

By ditsoft

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