Football actions in the ongoing Airtel Rising Stars season two will resumed on May 24, with greater intensity as 62 male and female teams from 31 states will converge in eight zones to vie for tickets to the national championship in Lagos.
A total of 1,116 youngsters, comprising 558 boys and girls from secondary schools and academies, will feature in the championship slated to hold in Kano, Kaduna, Jos, Owerri, Port Harcourt, Benin City, Ibadan and Lagos zones from May 24 to June 9, 2012.
It will run in a league format from which the zonal representatives to the national finals will emerge.
The zonal championship is coming on the heels of a successful intra-state round of matches across the nation.
Over 2,000 matches involving 1,689 teams were played in 31 states, including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
The states are Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, FCT-Abuja, Niger, Nassarawa, Kaduna, Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Plateau, Benue and Taraba. Others are Ogun, Lagos, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, Kwara, Edo,Delta, Kogi, Imo, Anambra, Abia, Enugu, Ebonyi and Rivers.
Jos, Kaduna and Kano zones will host the first round of inter-state matches, which started on Thursday and will end on Sunday.
Matches for the second round of the zonal championship will be played between May 31 and June 2 in Owerri, Port Harcourt and Benin City, while Lagos and Ibadan will host the last round from June 7 to 9.
This year’s edition of the ARS U-17 covers most states of the federation and the FCT.
Unlike the maiden edition, ARS 2 is in a league format with activations over six stages, which include intra-state, state championship, zonal champions’ league, national tournament, inter-country camp and national tour.
The Airtel Rising Stars U-17 Tourney, a unique pan African initiative of Airtel Africa, is designed to provide support for the development of football talents across her African markets.
It aims at discovering talented students (male and female) of secondary school age and provide them the opportunity to gain football skills and develop into renowned stars.