Leading telecommunications operator and organiser of the annual Airtel Rising Stars U-17 Tournament has announced a goal-for-education incentive during the forthcoming National Championship.
The company is offering $100 for every goal scored during match regulation time at the championship. At the end of the Championship, a participating team will receive the aggregated monetary value for the number of goals it scored during regular match time with the liberty to choose which charity in home state or zone gets the donation.
The Goal-for-Education initiative is aimed at furthering the company’s CSR spread while enhancing the quality of living among the less privileged across its African markets.
Speaking about the initiative, Director of Corporate Communication and CSR, Airtel Nigeria, Emeka Oparah, said it is one of the tie-back benefits of the Airtel Rising Stars Tournament which focuses on discovering talented football youngsters and giving them opportunities to hone their skills and become renowned stars.
His word, ”Our CSR goal is primarily targeted at helping the less privileged using every credible platform such as the ARS provides. We believe the goal-for-education, being a CSR-initiative, will further boost our efforts at achieving improved living conditions for this set of people among us.
“We are promoting a culture of integration that allows the players to live for others, using their talents. We also hope it will motivate the young boys and girls to produce for all lovers of the game the best of grassroots football for which the ARS is known.”
Meanwhile, 192 players comprising 12 male and female teams drawn from six zones across the nation will be featuring at the national championship where they will attempt to beat one another to the crowns and the tickets to participate in the week-long African Championship slated also for Lagos later in September.
The teams qualified for the three-day championship after featuring in the zonal championship phase where they had to see off strong competition for the national finals tickets from other equally good teams in their zones.
They include Kaduna, Abuja, Enugu, Port Harcourt, Ibadan and Lagos, all of which will be featuring both in the male and female categories.
The Lagos National Championship will be decided inside the main bowl of the Agege Township Stadium which also hosted it last year. Aside determining the national champions, the championship will double as a qualifier for the ARS inter-country championship slated for Lagos next month.
The Airtel Rising Stars U-17 Tourney, in its third year running, is a pan-African initiative of Airtel Africa, designed to provide support for the development of football talents across African markets.
It is aimed at discovering talented students (male and female) of secondary school age and providing them the opportunity to polish their football skills and develop into renowned stars.
As part of the tournament, top teams from 17 African countries will compete against each other for the title of Airtel Rising Stars African Champion, scheduled for Nigeria in September.
