AMAC Thrash Gwagwalada 7-0 As FCT Women’s Grassroots Football Tourney Kicks Off

Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) made a commanding start to the second edition of the FCT Football Association (FCT FA) Women’s Inter Area Council Football Tournament, thrashing Gwagwalada Area Council 7-0 in the opening match in Abuja.

The emphatic victory set the tone for a competition designed to unearth, develop and promote female football talents across the Federal Capital Territory.

The tournament features female teams representing all six Area Councils of the FCT, with the FCT FA using the competition as part of its broader grassroots development programme.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, FCT FA Chairman, Alhaji Adam Mouktar Mohammed, said the tournament was aimed at strengthening the women’s football pathway from the grassroots and giving young players the opportunity to develop without having to wait for clubs or scouts to discover them.

“The competition will motivate players, coaches and the entire ecosystem, as football is experiencing bottom-up development,” Mouktar said.

He stressed that female football was receiving the same grassroots attention as the men’s game, noting that the FCT had a large pool of talented girls who needed the right platform to showcase their abilities.

“Female football needs talents, and the FCT is towing this direction because there are many of them in the Area Councils. That is why the FA is taking the bull by the horns to make sure these talents are unearthed, nurtured and showcased to the world,” he said.

Mouktar added that the FCT FA would not wait for other stakeholders to develop players before scouting them.

“We are not waiting for others to develop the players and then scout them. This competition will give them the opportunity to play, get developed and become part of the system. It is a developmental phase for young and potential-laden players,” he said.

He also highlighted the wider social benefits of football, saying the sport could help keep young people away from social vices while instilling discipline, courage, determination and sacrifice.

The FCT FA chairman explained that taking the tournament across the six Area Councils was deliberate, particularly to ensure that football development was not concentrated in Abuja city.

According to him, staging matches across the councils would give players and other stakeholders a greater sense of belonging while opening opportunities for talents in communities with fewer football facilities.

Executive Chairman of the Federal Character Commission, Hon. Ayo Hulayat Omidiran, who attended the opening ceremony, described grassroots women’s football as the foundation for achieving sustained success at national level.

Omidiran said the future of women’s football remained bright, adding that competitions such as the FCT tournament could transform the lives of young girls by keeping them away from the streets and giving them confidence, courage and sound reasoning.

She urged individuals and organisations with the capacity to support women’s football to invest in its development, stressing that the benefits extend beyond financial returns.

However, Omidiran expressed concern over the decline of women’s football structures in Nigeria in recent years and called for deliberate efforts to rebuild the game through collaboration among stakeholders.

FCT FA board member, Dr Pat Ajuma Ayegba, said the tournament was deliberately designed for the grassroots because of the abundance of football talent across the Area Councils.

Ayegba noted that the first edition had helped expose several promising players, some of whom have continued to make progress in their careers.

She said the second edition would adopt a home-and-away format, with the additional objective of getting more girls off the streets, encouraging them to pursue football as a career and convincing parents that the sport could provide a viable future.

She added that players discovered through grassroots competitions had gone on to represent Nigeria at national-team level.

Ayegba also described the tournament as an important platform for coaches and scouts to identify promising players, revealing that talents discovered during the competition would form part of the pool from which the FCT women’s football team would be developed.

With AMAC already making a statement with their 7-0 opening victory, attention now turns to the remaining fixtures as the six Area Councils battle for honours while providing a pathway for the emergence of the next generation of female football stars in the FCT.