The Lagos State government has continued to seize every opportunity to reinforce its desire to support the development and growth of a beach soccer league as part of its commitment to tourism and youth empowerment. This ambitious project has received a boost with a recent partnership with Kinetic Sports, the organizers of COPA Lagos Beach Soccer Tournament, to develop beach soccer in Lagos and make it more commercially attractive.
Beach soccer is rapidly gaining a firm foothold in the country. In addition to its own organized league, the state will once again play host to COPA Lagos, which will feature defending champions, Sand Eagles of Nigeria alongside other countries such as Germany, Lebanon and Senegal. The annual tournament which begins on December 13 will run till December 15, 2013.
The competition will be held at the beachfront of Eko Atlantic and is proudly supported by one of Nigeria’s leading financial institutions, FCMB as well as Cool FM and Smirnoff Ice.
A total of four teams will be in action during the three day weekend event with other activities such as fashion shows and musical concerts also in the offering to create a truly amazing experience for spectators and invited guest.
More significantly the Lagos State Government through avenues such as Eko Beach Soccer Leaguewill work together with Kinetic Sports to develop and promote the game of beach soccer throughout the state, from the grassroots to the professional level.
Kinetic Sports has promised in return to bring to this endeavor world class international teams and the best global sports development practices, which will be required to ensure the project’s success.
“Kinetic Sports in association with Eko Beach Soccer League, an initiative of his Excellency Mr. BabatundeRajiFashola, Lagos state governor while visiting the Copa Lagos venue in 2011; have recognized the need to build beach soccer from grassroots to professional level so that a sustainable sporting model is not only created but supported by platforms like COPA Lagos that will enable the national team reach their full potential on the international stage,” said Samson Adamu, Chief Executive Officer, Kinetic Sports.
“We’ll be working very closely with Lagos State in bringing out the commercial aspect of the game because there is lot of things that needs to be developed.The gesture reflects the government’s push to create partnerships with private sector companies to deliver services to the people of Lagos state.This will go a long way to regenerating interest in beach soccer and developing concepts which are of national interest,” he said.
According to the Chairman, Eko Beach Soccer League, Mr. Godson Uti “There is a lot of seriousness that we have seen with Kinetic Sports and we are particularly proud of their vision not only to take beach soccer forward through COPA Lagos but to work with brands such as FCMB to build a positive image for this country.”
“We are confident that we have a partnership that works. There is a lot of developmental work that needs to happen from the grassroot level. So we are working on gaining support and participation at all levels of interest. The Eko beach soccer league is fully taking shape and promises to be a world class league, it has also a huge commercial benefit to the corporate bodies as well as massive developmental potential to make Lagos the centre stage of International beach soccer” said Uti.
This is Kinetic Sport’s third edition of the tournament with an objective to make beach soccer a family oriented activity.
COPA Lagos also aims to reach out to the expatriate community via beach soccer and other international teams that participated in previous events include England, Brazil, Argentina and Portugal
“We want the interaction of the expatriate community as they come to support their respective teams and look forward to the Lebanese community for example coming out on mass to cheer their team.” said Adamu.
COPA Lagos have also scheduled a “clean the beach” campaign in keeping in tangent with the objective of the office of the Commissioner for Waterfront and Infrastructure to clear all beach coastlines so that the beaches can be restored to the tourist hub they once used to be.
The state government has made tremendous gain in ridding the beach area from illicit activities such as touting, illegal use of hard drugs and prostitution as well as the presence of social miscreants popularly known as “area boys.” Adequate security measures have also been put in place to guaranty the safety and security of visitors to the beach area during the course of the tournament.
