Zenith/Delta Principals Cup prelims to produce 26 qualifiers

The Delta State Principals Cup football competition for all secondary schools in the state sponsored by Zenith Bank is on centre stage.

About 700 schools comprising of both public and private from the 25 local government councils in the state are taking part in the developmental competition which is only on its second edition. The competition was revived after being in limbo for over 25 years only last year by Zenith Bank.

For the Season 2 which officially kicked off last Wednesday in Asaba, preliminary matches are currently being played to bring out 26 qualifiers for the zonal stage.

Head of the organizing team, Tony Pemu, at the weekend gave an insight into why 26 and not 25 teams will emerge from the preliminaries.

He said: There are 25 LGs but we are going to have 26 because we divided one of the LGs, Ughelli North into two. We are going to divide the 26 qualifiers into seven zones after the preliminaries.

“The remaining weeks in November will be for the preliminaries and there will be a December break. In January, we are going to swing into higher tempo from zonal into the final stages of the tournament.”

Zenith Bank’s Group Managing Director, Peter Amangbo, has pledged that the ongoing Season 2 of the tournament would be an improvement on the first edition.

Master Card International Secondary School emerging defeated Iderghe Secondary School 2-1 to win the maiden edition of the youth football fiesta.