‘10th Pitch Awards to exhibit best of country’s football’

Nigeria Pitch Awards

Organisers of the yearly Nigeria Pitch Awards, which marks its 100th anniversary next year, will exhibit the best of the country’s football, organisers of the awards have said.

The Nigeria Pitch Awards, which debuted in July 12, will celebrate its 10th anniversary at a gala in March 2024, during the international free window.

Speaking on preparations for the event in Lagos, on Tuesday, president of Nigeria Pitch Awards, Shina Philips, said they plan to make the 10th edition a momentous event, adding that a symposium to discuss the future of Nigerian football would be staged before the event.

“We are going to announce some of the big initiatives we are adding to the award ceremony with time,” Phillips said. “I say a big thank you to our independent vote collating partners-SIAO- and the Nigeria Football Federation and also college of voters for standing by us over the years.

“It is deliberate working without sponsors in the past years just to protect the standard and integrity of the award,” he said.

According to Phillips: “Our determination was to create an award platform built on integrity, credibility and transparency. To achieve this, we completely removed ourselves from the award decision process, giving organisers zero vote in the entire voting process.”

He disclosed that voting to select winners in the different categories would holdfrom December 4 to January 12, 2024, saying, “we will release details as preparations progress.”

Also speaking at the event, Nigeria Football Federation’s (NFF) Media Director, Ademola Olajire, commended sports journalists for supporting the award project over in the past 10 years, addingthat it has lasted the distance because it was based on integrity, credibility and