Spires 5-Aside: Organizers announce key changes for 2025 tournament
Organizers of the Spires 5-Aside Naija Street Soccer Tournament has announced key changes in the 2025 edition of the tournament. This was made known at a Stakeholders Conference organized to Kickstart activities ahead of the second season of the grassroots football development initiative.
The conference held at the CIBN Building in Victoria Island Lagos, had in attendance Football Coaches, Referees, Representatives from the respective Divisional Football Association in Lagos, members of the Lagos State Football association, as well as members of the media led by the Guild of Sports Editors.
Also present at the event is the President of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) Prof. Pius Olanrewaju, the Registrar Mr. Akin Morakinyo, and the Chairman Kainosedge Consulting Limited, Mr. Laoye Jayeola.
The convener of the event and initiator of the Spires 5-Aside Naija Street Soccer Tourney Dr. Bankole Allibay, gave an overview of the maiden edition of the tournament held in 2024 which he discribed as highly successful, as he further gave a projection for the 2025 edition.
Allibay, in his presentation said forty teams from the five divisions in Lagos will compete in the divisional stages of the second season, with eight teams expected to register from each division. Three teams from the respective divisions will advance to the state tournament, and Knockout rounds leading up to group play and the grand finale.
The five diversions are Epe, Lagos Island, Ikorodu, Badagry, and Ikeja.
According to Bankole, players above the age of 21 are no longer eligible to register for the new season. He said that only players between the ages of 16-21 will now be allowed to participate in the tournament with a targeted approach of developing young talents.
” The world is now interested in younger footballers, hence we have decided that the focus should be on developing the younger talents, we have seen clubs even outside the country who have shown interest in some of the younger players from the last edition, so, we hope to leverage on this by creating a channel of development for the young stars”.
As part of the changes in the 2025 edition, the tournament will offer a higher prize money for the winning teams, recognizing both individual and team achievements on the field.
Also, there will be an increase in participation fees given to teams who are selected for this years tournaments while there’ll be a window for talents scouting with focus on connections to football academies and clubs.
The kick-off date for the new season as well as the prize money and other incentives will be announced in the month of March.
Wite Tigers FC defeated All Saints football club to emerge champions of the maiden edition of the Spires 5-Aside Naija Street Soccer Tournament in December 2024.
The coach Emannuel Olum, tutored side secured the coveted trophy and a prize money of N5 million.
