Leadership (Abuja)
Salifu Usman
6 October 2008
The president of West Africa Football Union, WAFU, Dr Amos Adamu has ahead of the forthcoming WAFU U-20 Championship slated for Warri, Delta State, Nigeria approved the participation of all the 16- member countries billed to take part in the tournament.
The entry for the competition scheduled to take place between November 30 and December 14 2008, had closed on September 25 with 12 countries beating the deadline for registration. But the other four federations sent their entries later to the WAFU secretariat in Abidjan, Cote d' Ivoire, with passionate pleas to be allowed to participate.
According to a press statement issued by Ade Ojeikere, Head of media for WAFU U-20 LOC, the WAFU boss said the decision to allow the remaining four countries participate was taken after due consultation with its executive committee, who flew in to Abuja last week for a crucial meeting to assess preparations for the competition.
According to Ademu, the Committee members saw the need to carry all the member nations along in the new drive to revive the regional body and reposition it as the new soccer power centre in Africa.
"We are of the opinion that every body should be encouraged to be part of the revolution now going on in WAFU. Since the last competition staged by WAFU was way back in 1991 we are happy that all our members have shown interest in participating in the WAFU U-20 Cup. It is an indication that everybody is buying into our new vision to revive and revitalise the organisation."
He however, stated that subsequent editions of the tournament will not be an all-comers affair as countries have to play qualifiers. " It is only those that scale through the qualifying round that will feature in the next edition, in line with the standard practice," he declared.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Technical Sub-committee for the WAFU U-20 CUP, Dr Tijjani Yusuf believes the inclusion of additional four entries would not cause a major disruption in the plan so far put in place.
Dr Yusuf said his committee had immediatelty adjusted the initial format done for the competition to accommodate the new entries, "There won't be any major disruption. For us in the sub-committee, the more countries coming in, the merrier"
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