5,000 Schools Battle for COPA Coca-Cola Title

About 5,000 secondary schools across the country will battle for honours in this year’s edition of the COPA Coca-Cola U-15 football tournament.

This much was made known to newsmen at the SWAN Secretariat at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos at a press briefing to herald the competition by the Marketing Director, Coca-Cola Nigeria, Patricia Jemibewon.

“The teens who participate in Copa CocaCola give everything for football, now it is time for Copa Coca-Cola to give back much more than before. At the state level, all 110,000 participating teens will get a Copa Coca-Cola bib; the top three teams will receive medals and the winning team in all 36 States and the FCT will receive a trophy and makeover of a football pitch of their choice, worth over N5million in total,” Jemibewon disclosed.

“At the national level, players in the top three teams and the top three schools will benefit from an education trust fund totaling N22million as well as cash prizes totaling N2million,” she added.

Commenting on the tournament, the Marketing Manager (Colas), Coca-Cola Nigeria, Cletus Onyebuoha remarked that the competition, which is now in its 9th year, has contributed largely to the success of some of the participants who are now pursuing a career as professional footballers.

This year, the competition has been divided into three stages, the grassroots, group and final stage. At the grassroots stage, interested schools in each of the 37 states will compete for a chance to represent their states at the group stage/regional stage.