Two elite teams in the Nigeria Professional Football League, Enyimba of Aba and Shooting Stars of Ibadan have confirmed their readiness for the forthcoming pre-season football tournament tagged Eko International Cup.
A total of eight teams are billed to take part in the highly-anticipated pre-season football tournament which will also involve a couple of teams from other parts of the African continent.
Media officer of Enyimba, David Orji, said on Wednesday that the Aba Elephant are battle ready for the tournament billed to take place at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena in Lagos between July 6 and 13th.
Orji said: “The team resumed camp earlier than scheduled just to be ready for this pre-season tournament because of the rich pedigree it entails. We accepted the invitation to part of this because it will help in the overall preparation of the team for the new season.
“We have new players in our fold that the technical people will evaluate for the challenges ahead and the Eko International Cup is a good avenue to do that and even lots more.”
For Tosin Omojola, the Media Officer of Shooting Stars of Ibadan, the story is the same.
“Our team is eager to get going with the Eko International Cup as our own curtain raiser for the new season. The players are working hard to make the first team of the coaches and the competition level is very intense in camp.
“We resumed two weeks ago and we have a friendly match billed for Thursday July 3rd as part of the preparations for the pre-season tourney in Lagos,” Omojola said.
Other NPFL teams expected to feature in the tournament are; Remo Stars and Ikorodu City.
Two more domestic teams will be unfolded by the organisers in the days ahead as two teams are expected to come from other parts of Africa.
They are FC Kallon of Sierra Leone and Accra Hearts of Oak, Ghana.
The Executive Director, Publicity and Strategy for the Local Organizing Committee of the EIC, Onome Obruthe, says the LOC for the event has been so busy with the logistics of hosting the teams from other parts of the continent
“We are aware of the task ahead and we are excited about the responses from various quarters about the tournament. The countdown is on and we look forward to an exciting display in Lagos,” Obruthe said.
