HiFL® HOLDS TEAM DRAWS, JERSEYS REVEAL AHEAD OF ITS MAIDEN EDITION

In a bid to grow collegiate sports in Nigeria, Higher Institutions Football League (HiFL®), a competition created and owned by PACE Sports and Entertainment Marketing Limited (PSEMLtd) and managed in partnership with the Nigeria University Games Association (NUGA), was launched this year as the first organised collegiate football league in the country.

On Friday, 20th July, football pundits, stakeholders and administrators alongside several brands and business leaders, gathered at the external ball room of the Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos to witness the draws for the participating 16 schools in the 2018 edition of the collegiate football league in Nigeria starting from July 28, 2018 to November 3, 2018.

The games are scheduled to hold between July and November, the league will commence with 16 universities, zoned into the Coastal Conference (South) and the Sahel Conference (North) for reasons of proximity and effective administration.

The draws was conducted by Mr. Olamide Adeyemo, the Chief Strategy Officer of PACE Sports and Entertainment Limited and he was ably supported by ex-internationals Victor Agali, Friday Elaho, Festus Odini and the Head Retail Sales of Stanbic IBTC Bank PLC, Mr. Obinna Lewis-Asonye, sponsors of the competition.

In his address, Mr Adeyemo explained that the eight Universities from each conferences were further categorized into two groups (A&B) for the reasons of proximity and safety and that teams would be picked randomly from 4 transparent bowls which represented the 4 groups namely; Sahel A, Sahel B, Coastal A and Coastal B to ensure the draws were done in line with global standards.

The tension was palpable among the guests which included the Directors of Sports and Head Coaches of the participating institutions as one by the balls were picked from each bowl. Friends became foes as the teams were pitted against each other in each group. As the official fixtures were unveiled, it became clear to everyone that the star match of the opening round would pit the Marines of Unilag and the Royals of Uniben in a battle for pride, glory and bragging rights. Another standout clash of the first round is the titanic battle of the north between BUK stallions and Udusok Sultans.

Meanwhile, a colossal amount of attendants were thrilled as the colourful football jerseys were unveiled. An audacious, fun and stylish one that the students will love to have for the games.

HiFL® is approved by the Nigerian University Games Association (NUGA) and endorsed by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). The league is overseen by the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the Committee of Vice-Chancellors (CVC).

The winner of this HIFL® 2018 season will represent Nigeria at the 2019 International University Sports Federation games in Naples, Italy.

More information and specific match fixtures can be gathered on the HiFL® website (embed link) and via its social media platforms on
Twitter: @hiflnigeria
Facebook: HiFL Nigeria
Instagram: @hiflnigeria

The different teams also have their social media handles so football lovers from the various institutions can follow and engage their teams online. Click this link to see and follow the different 16 team handles https://twitter.com/HiFLNigeria/status/1020395113506369536

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Some guests at the flag off

Nigeria ex-Internationals at the unveiling
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More pix

Guests at the draw

Beautiful MC

More

Dignitaries at the unveiling

More pictures

You can also check full fixtures here
https://www.nairaland.com/4629789/full-fixture-2018-higher-institution

Beautifully branded and nicely sponsored.
Let's go there....
It's gonna be fun..

OK

Let the tournament begins, maybe this can help because Nigeria clubs is total waste...we can start breeds good players here!
probably we can even see those who'll represent us well in Qatar 2022 here.

Let the tournament begins. Maybe we could discover a new striker that will keep Ighalo at home next world cup

nice movement

What a great way to improve football in the country! This will help breeds good players for the nation !!! A welcome development

This is one of the best thing ave heard in this july so far

This is nice.



Since Buhari and his failed party have decided not to support Sports and Education, we will grow it ourselves.


I'm waiting for APC to claim this as an achievement tho.

this pic has meme potential

Why am I seeing only football?

It is high time we realize that football is beyond our reach and go for other sports.

If we invest half the money invested in football on basketball, athletics, wrestling, weightlifting, and gymnastics, we would produce better results at international competitions and earn more revenue.

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Why are the ex internationals dressed so shabbily?

Jas1000:
I pray these colleges be true to themselves, not going about hiring players ohh.

For wia? They will hire o. Most of the students will be occupied with school work hence the need for mercenaries.

The support is huge!

And about colleges hiring players. I think proper data base should be put in place.. Name, school, student ids and mat number. All should be consistently checked before every match. If possible, there should be a sign-in and out procedure.

Let's Play fair!

The United States and China are not soccer giants, yet they produce far greater medals in the Olympics than Brazil and Argentina combined.

Qaisar1:
The support is huge!

And about colleges hiring players. I think proper data base should be put in place.. Name, school, student ids and mat number. All should be consistently checked before every match. If possible, there should be a sign-in and out procedure.

Let's Play fair!

When the Universities do not run a uniform academic calender, there are bound to irregularities.

My University though, sportsmen were given special academic concession. Eg rescheduled tests etc.

Great step.

Way to go, will love this done in other sports especially my first love(basketball)... Team O.A.U.. all the way.....This should replace Nuga games which is really useless in my opinion....you can go 3 year without a nuga games.

Where's my lautech??

CSTR1005:
The United States and China are not soccer giants, yet they produce far greater medals in the Olympics than Brazil and Argentina combined.

Here we just concentrate on football,the word rugby, cricket are aliens to us

hmmmm'... still observing