Over 3,000 clubs are expected to feature in the 2023 Lagos Street Soccer Championship (LSSC) to be hosted by Surulere Local Council next month.
Chairman of the Lagos Street Soccer body, Bolaji Yusuf, who disclosed that Surulere has won the hosting right for this year’s championship during the week, said a Lagos Street Soccer committee has been tasked with reviving the championship launched in 2008 by the Lagos State Football Association.
“We are glad to announce that Surulere will host the 2023 Lagos Street Soccer Championship opening ceremony. This decision was taken after several considerations by the committee in conjunction with the Lagos State Football Association that charged us with the mandate of reviving street soccer across the state,” he said.
The former Senior Special Adviser to Lagos State Government on Sports Facilities under former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, also noted that the championship has developed in scope, purpose, prospect and became a formidable platform through which football development has improved at the grassroots level since its inception.
Speaking on the hosting right, Surulere Council Chairman, Sulaiman Bamidele Yusuf, thanked the Lagos State FA and the street soccer body for finding the council worthy of hosting the opening ceremony of the event.
“We are excited about this development. Using sports as an engaging tool for the teeming youth of Surulere is part of our core mandates. We are glad that the Lagos State Street Soccer Committee has given us a platform to actualise this vision,” he said.
He commended the Lagos FA, led by Fouad Oki, for reviving grassroots football in the state and promised that the council would work with other stakeholders to host a befitting opening ceremony.
Yusuf affirmed his support for the initiative that has featured over 3,000 teams with more than 30,000 players and officials as direct beneficiaries of the programme for over seven seasons between 2008 and 2014 across all the 377 wards in Lagos State.
