The Chairman of the Zik Hall Football Association, Benjamin Obashola, has revealed that more awards will be provided to participating players in this year's Zik Hall League. He stated this during an interview with Zik Press on Sunday, 18th of May, 2025.
When asked what new innovations the FA is bringing into this year's football league, Benjamin stated that this year's edition of the Zik Hall League will not be testing a lot of new innovations.
“It [the league] is meant to give us that solid ground, as the second year will actually determine whether the league will stay or not. The inaugural season was very fantastic, as you all can see. But then, we are more about sustaining [the momentum] this session than bringing the things on board. So, as you can see, we are trying a lot of new things,” he said.
He also mentioned that the transfer news that have been going on is one of the initiatives the committee members decided to bring this year.
"Also, hopefully, we will work more on players' encouragement if we are able to get the desired sponsorship. Players' encouragement is the major thing we actually want to work on this session.”
When asked what kind of player encouragement the players should look forward to, Benjamin said, "We do not want to wait for the end-of-the-season awards only. If possible, if you go to our Instagram and Twitter pages last session, you will see that we do release the Team of the Week graphics. This time around, we want to go as far as having the Player of the Week nomination. We choose the Player of the Week, and then there will be a gift for that individual.”
Speaking on prizes, Benjamin revealed the competition is a winner-takes-all tournament.
"The winner goes home with a sum of one hundred thousand naira and gold medals. Then there's an opportunity for other players to contest for the individual awards. There's Player of the Season, Playmaker of the Season, Young Player of the Season, Goalkeeper of the Season, and Highest Goalscorer. But there is no monetary prize attached to them. The Young Player of the Season award is open only to freshmen,” he revealed.
According to him, the modalities of the team remain the same as last session, aside from the fact that there will be no graduates this year. Last session, two graduates were allowed to come on board per team. For this session, that rule has been scrapped.
“We can only have graduates as either a team owner or the coach. The team definitely must have a well-defined team structure. From the team owner to the manager to the captain and other players,” he stated.
“And while the team owner definitely cannot be a player, we allow teams to have player-coaches. There is no equal player-coach in football. If someone knows that he want to be a player and he is the one that has the financial capability for the team, he definitely has to bring in someone called trust. A board of trustee is just like the way it is in football. When you talk about multi-club ownership, you definitely must not be the one to manage everything when you have to play in the same competition.
“So we apply such a rule here also. The owner, the financially capable person, must get someone to step in for him. The person will be the one we recognise as the owner. Then the individual, the financially capable person, can be registered as the player. So from the team owner to the manager to the players, 12 players per team, minimum of 6 Zikites.
He further stated that Young Boys FC is the only exempted from these rules.
"The Young Boys FC, for as long as the Zik hall league will be holding, will always be a 12-man team comprising 100-level Zikites. Majority of them are actually the players that played in the Inter-Hall Freshers Cup. And if the Hall Chairman wishes, he can add more, because the Young Boys will be owned by the office of the old Chairman. Whoever gets elected as the old chairman will be the one to be recognised as the owner of the team.”
When asked about sponsorship, he said, “We depend solely on external sponsorship. And the little we received from team registration. Team registration this season has increased from #10,000 last season to #15,000 this year because there are a lot of things to cover. As you can see, the FA actually bought the net that was used last session for the league. It has actually been tattered. Very, very tattered so we have a lot of things to buy.
“Our budget is over 400,000 Naira. And we hope and pray we can get enough sponsorship. So there's nothing coming from the hall management. There's nothing coming from the school, definitely. So it is personal contributions and the little we can get from anonymous and private parties [that we will be using].”
Zik Press also inquired about the issue of rain and the consequent flooding that happens on the Maracana pitch, a situation that affected the scheduled preseason matches on Saturday. In his words, the long lasting solution the FA could find was to construct an underground drainage. But given how expensive the project is (estimated figure of one million naira), Benjamin stated that the FA has resorted to creating a makeshift pathway for the water to flow through to the drainage outside the Maracana. With this, matches will be able to continue within five hours after a rainfall.
Speaking on refereeing, Benjamin stated that, They will be sticking with Coach Ike as referee for this year's edition. As a parting shot, Benjamin invited all undergraduates to come and be involved in activities of the league.
He said, “To those looking to participate in this competition, participation goes beyond being on the field. Participation goes beyond being the manager. Participation goes beyond being the team owner.I actively participate in the Zik Hall League, not in any of these three positions. I do these things: the sport administration part of it and the ball business part of it. It is actually the main thing behind the scene.
"So I would encourage anyone who is interested in participating and has actually not gotten the opportunity to participate in those three years; the FA is still open for them to join. They can join the FA, and they can also be our partners. We are open to the ball business, advertisement and all.Our Twitter page and Instagram page are very active. We have almost 200 followers on each. So, we have enough room. And trust me, I can say it categorically that we are building a legacy. This season, we two of our teams already have a Twitter account. So you can see that what is going on. I would encourage everyone to come and participate. Be part of a story yet untold.”
The Zik Hall League is scheduled to begin on Sunday, 25th of May, 2025. In the meantime, the participating clubs have been confirmed and transfer is ongoing.
