Nigeria Pitch Awards’ Organisers Plan Annual Symposium On Sports

As part of its effort to offer more to improve Nigerian sports, organisers of the Nigeria Pitch Awards, Matchmakers Consult International and SIAO Partners, say it will be organising an annual symposium on sports, an event which will precede the annual award ceremony.

Shina Phillips, President of Nigeria Pitch Awards, said the plan to have an annual symposium on sports was borne out of the desires of the organisers of the Nigeria Pitch Awards to offer their own quota for the development of Nigerian sports.

He said: “At our inaugural press conference in 2012, we stated that the Nigeria Pitch Awards platform would offer Nigerians more than awards to deserving footballers. In continuing with this vision to offer more to improve sports in Nigeria, we are pleased to announce an annual symposium on sports. 

“The symposium which will precede the annual Award Ceremony will attract local and international speakers. Our vision is to make the gathering a unique opportunity to renew and re-focus national attention on sports in Nigeria and open up avenues for administrators to harness the opportunities sports provide. We will outline more details of this project in the coming months.”

According to Phillips, a FIFA licenced agent, “the journey to the 8th edition of the Nigeria Pitch Awards is the story of the determination of all stakeholders to create and sustain a reward platform for our footballers, administrators and football lovers and supporters. We express our appreciation to the Presidency, the Ministry of Sports and Youth Development, the Nigeria Football Federation, our College of Voters, the Nigerian media and all nominees and award winners on this platform.”

On Wednesday this week, the organisers unveiled the list of nominees for the 2021 Nigeria Pitch Awards. The list contained players in both the local leagues and foreign-based Nigerian footballers who have distinguished themselves in the round leather game in the year under review, while some sports administrators, Nigerian governors and sports journalists also made the list. To Phillips, who is also a security expert, “we have confidence in the voting process we have put in place and in the professionalism of the SIAO Partners. We will continue to work with them and our College of Voters to sustain the standard we have set.

“Let me congratulate all nominees. The competition for places in each category has shown that every nominee is a winner,” he said.

The award ceremony for the 2021 Nigeria Pitch Awards will hold on Saturday, 26 March 2022 where a long list of activities has been lined up to make the night memorable.

“During the award ceremony, there will be the presentation of Special Achievement in Sports Award to Her Excellency, Aisha Buhari, the First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for her hosting of the Aisha Buhari Invitational Women’s Football Tournament. She has become Africa’s champion for the advancement of the rights of the girl child to social, economic and political development on the continent.

“The Inspector-General of Police, IGP Akali Baba Usman will be honoured with the Sportsmanship Award for the introduction of ‘Operation Restore Peace’ in the South-East and South-South. This peace moves effectively doused tension between the police and the citizens and ushered in a new wave of police-citizen partnership in the fight against criminality in the region. IGP Akali’s is also a passionate supporter of sports as he demonstrated during the biennial Police Games in Akwa in 2020.

“Others to be honoured are Mr Daniel Amokachi, ‘The Bull’, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sports who played a pivotal and historic role in Nigeria’s first FIFA World Cup appearance and Mr Amaju Pinnick, president of Nigeria Football Federation for his contributions to the advancement of Nigerian football and for his representation of the country at the highest level of world football,” Phillips said.