Eko International Cup: Enyimba, Shooting Stars resume camp for pre-season tourney

Enyimba Football Club of Aba and Shooting Stars of Ibadan have resumed camp in preparation for the forthcoming Eko International Cup football tournament taking place in Lagos.

The two elite teams in the Nigeria Professional Football League started training last weekend respectively to gradually build up for the tournament involving eight teams.

The pre-season football tournament, which runs between July 6 and 13, takes place at the Mobolaji Johnson Stadium, formerly Onikan Stadium, with two matches to be played on a daily basis.

SKI-Hi Entertainment, in collaboration with the Lagos State Government, is organizing the competition to prepare teams for the next football season and also to entertain lovers of the game in the off-season period.

Five NPFL teams have been confirmed to take part in the tournament with two others coming from outside the country.

They are Remo Stars, Ikorodu City, Shooting Stars, Enyimba of Aba, and two other teams expected to be unveiled soon. The two teams expected from other parts of the continent are FC Kallon of Sierra Leone and Heart of Oak of Ghana.

Originally, FC Dadje of Republic of Benin were on the cards for the highly-anticipated event but only last week, the team wrote a letter to the organisers to be excused due to a clash of events involving the team which won the league title last term in Benin Republic.

The Executive Director, Publicity and Strategy for the Local Organizing Committee of the EIC, Onome Obruthe, said the late withdrawal would not affect the scope of the tournament.

Obruthe said: “We had some teams on standby in case of issues like this, and we are bringing them in once we tidy all discussions with their respective management teams.

“We are counting down already and can’t wait to get started. We are excited about the support coming from our partners and sponsors like MTN and Bigi Drinks