Airtel offers $100 per goal scored at ARS3 championship

Leading telecommunications
operator and organizer 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.