By Olivia Kpandi, Oluwatoyin Saporu, and Precious Adebayo
The female football teams competing in the 2024/2025 Provost Cup at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) have called on the Student Representative Council (SRC) to create a better structure for the tournament, ensuring fair representation for female players.
The annual football competition, organized by the SRC, includes teams from all levels—ND1, ND2, HND1, HND2, PGD, and part-time students. While full-time students compete by level, part-time students form a single team representing all classes. Matches are played over two legs: the first leg in the first semester and the second leg in the second semester. All games take place on NIJ’s school pitch in Ogba.
NIJ Insight reports that the first leg of the tournament, which ended in February, featured 15 matches—all played by male teams. Meanwhile, the female teams only got to play two matches, both held on the same day. The fixtures included HND2 versus HND1 and ND1 against ND2, both of which ended in a 0-0 draw.
Captain of the HND2 female team, Omowumi Adetuberu, voiced her disappointment over the lack of opportunities for female players. She urged the SRC’s sports director to improve the structure next semester, ensuring that female teams get more matches and a fair fixture schedule.
Despite the challenges, Adetuberu remains optimistic about the second semester.
“We’re going for the win this time. We missed out on the cup last season, but we’re determined to take it home now,” she said.
The NIJ female footballers have intensified their training, fine-tuning their strategies and sharpening their skills. Beyond competing, they hope to inspire more women to embrace football and prove that female athletes deserve recognition and support.
According to the SRC’s Sports Director, Honorable Famoroti, the school is working on expanding opportunities for female footballers through better training programs, sponsorship deals, and increased media coverage.
However, attempts to get his comments on the demand for better tournament structure were unsuccessful at the time of this report.
