Mrs. Betsy Obaseki, the wife of the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has allayed fears that her brainchild, the annual Betsy Obaseki Women Football Tournament(BOWFT), will suffer a relapse when she leaves the state government house on 12th November, 2024 as the tournament is private sector driven.
The governor’s wife alluded to the fact that a board, made up of people of high networth, has been put up to manage the tournament which has now attained the status of an international competition. She also disclosed that the aspect of marketing the tournament has been handed over to a reputable outfit such that in future the tournament would be organised solely from funds it generates.
She stated this on Monday at a Press Briefing to herald the commencement of the fourth edition of the tournament. She expressed happiness that the tournament has impacted greatly on the standard of the state owned female team, Edo Queens and indeed sports in the state.
“Talking about the impact. When this government came onboard eight years ago sports in Edo State was dead, was practically non-existent. That was heartbreaking considering that this state has been known in this country as the foremost sporting state. The glory came over 33 years ago with a governor who was very visionary and he was a sports lover.
“The late General Samuel Ogbemudia. It was in his time Edo State then Bendel State became known for sports. And in every competition Bendel came tops in all sporting activities in the country on a consistent basis. It broke our hearts to see when we came onboard it was all dead and gone. Bendel Insurance that was highly reputable and very popular football club in Nigeria was down and out.
“With the push to revive sports in the state within five years of coming onboard this government was able to revive sports in Edo State and bring Bendel Insurance back up to the top league. Edo Queens also suffered the same fate and we are very proud to say since our tournament four years ago Edo Queens has continued to grow and get better and better,” she submitted.
According to her, “as the wife of the governor Edo Queens happens to be my pet club and I have taken extra time to pay attention to them and help to strengthen and nurture them to hit the roof and become number one. I am very happy that in three years of this outing we have reached that goal. I pray that we continue to stay on top.
“You all know also that this championship has also produced players who have been taken out from this tournament to play for the national team, the Falcons. We are happy and proud to see that our efforts are yielding desirable results.”
She disclosed that the tournament which started four years ago with twelve local female teams as participants has now admitted two foreign clubs from Benin Republic, adding “the idea of this tournament is to empower women and girls not just in Edo State but in Nigeria. It appears we are now going beyond Nigeria to other countries outside of Nigeria.”
Going down memory lane she recalled, “we started off four years ago with prize money of ₦5m for the winner of the championship. This year I am glad to announce that the prize money is double that amount. It’s ₦10m and the second placed collects ₦7m as opposed to N3m the first time. The third placed collects ₦5m as opposed to ₦1.5m when we started off. We have a fourth placed prize which is ₦3m as opposed to ₦750,000 when we started off. All the other participants will go away with ₦750,000.”
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