Nigeria Pitch Awards Set For 7th Edition

Super Eagles and Leicester City FC Midfielder Wilfred Ndidi (middle) receiving his award statuette and certificate for Midfielder of the Year 2018 from Ahmed Fresh, NFF Board Member (right) at the 2018 Award Ceremony in Asaba, Delta State.

Organizers of the prestigious Nigeria Pitch Awards have announced plans to stage the 7th edition of the annual football awards.

Speaking in the nation’s capital, Abuja, Shina Philips, the CEO/MD of Matchmakers Consult International, organizers of the awards, stated that arrangements have been concluded to kick off activities leading to the award ceremony which is scheduled to hold in March 2020.

‘We have come a long way since the first edition in Calabar in 2013. Despite the challenges with sponsorship, we have continued to advance the course of football in Nigeria through the Nigeria Pitch Awards. We have lined up a plethora of interesting events to make the 7th edition of the awards a huge success’, Philips said.

Speaking further, Philips said voting by sports editors spread across the 36 states of the federation would begin in the second week of December 2019. ‘The process usually begins with voting by over 100 sports editors in the 36 states of the country. Voting will begin in the second week of December and this will be on till the second week of January 2020.’

Speaking on what football fans should look at for in the 7th edition, Philips said ‘We will continue to sustain the high standards set from the first edition. The voting process will remain credible and transparent and we will stage an award ceremony that all football administrators, footballers, winners and voters will be proud of’, Philips concluded.

The Nigeria Pitch Awards was endorsed by the Nigeria Football Federation in 2012. The voting process which involves voting by sports editors across the country is coordinated by SIAO Partners, Nigeria’s foremost indigenous accounting firm.  The annual award ceremony usually takes place on the night of a Super Eagles match in the country. The awards is arguably Nigeria’s only audited awards and the longest running football awards in Nigeria.