Any school that fields an athlete that is not a student of the institution would be sent packing from the maiden edition of the Faith Academy Sports inter Schools Mini Sports Festival, billed to commence on June 22 in Kaduna.
This was part of the resolution adopted at the technical meeting ahead of the competition, held at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium Kaduna on Saturday.
“Any school found fielding non bonafide students shall be disqualified and reported to the Ministry of Education as well as paraded before newsmen, ” the meeting agreed, with Gabriel Ibrahim of Kalinat Academy moving for adoption of the 15 rules document, with David Adele of Christ Ambassadors College seconding.
Other rules adopted include permitting only students that are not more than 16 years as at December 31st 2018 to participate.
“Athletes must be bonafide students of the school he/she is participating for and must have spent more than two terms in the school with proven evidence, ” the meeting agreed.
Chairman Faith Academy Sports Committee, and the Chairman of the Main Organising Committee, Mr. Emmanuel Nden in his welcome address said that the meeting was in preparation for the maiden mini Sports Festival.
He said the meeting was to know how many schools have registered and inform them of the rules and regulations concerning the games.
National Organising Secretary of the Youth Sports Federation of Nigeria (YSFON), Mallam Abdulrazak Usman which is the Chairman Technical Committee, said the meeting was virtually all about a technical session.
He emphasized that discipline is crucial in their bid to discover talents that would represent the nation in the nearest future.
He said that two hours before every event, screening will take place to ensure that they are genuine students of the school they are representing.
Representative of Rimi College, Senior Mistress Games, Esther Andrew Pyop said that being the first time an event like this was coming up, there is the need to make arrangements for crowd control from the students who would be over excited.
Former President of the National Association of Athletics Technical Officials (NAATO), Akpodeh Goodluck said that the initiative is commendable and that there is the need for more of it.
He however called for amendment of the programme, stressing that running 5,000 metres in the afternoon was not conducive.
The two-day event which is organised by Faith Academy in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, North West Zonal office and YSFON will be ending on June 23, and is expected to feature not less than 40 secondary schools from public and private sectors.
