The Edo State Football Association, through its media committee, successfully hosted a media summit for football clubs in Edo State on Friday, 29th November, at the Media Center of the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin City.
The Media Summit tagged: “GAME ON – leveraging Media for football club growth” saw resource persons from the media sphere across the length and breadth of the country and internationally taking sessions to educate participants on the subject of Media.
Simon Hudges, a British journalist and a senior writer with the Athletic, a top global media outfit, opened the floor via his lecture, which was delivered virtually.
Other speakers were Justina Aniefiok, a CAF and FIFA accredited Photojournalist; Adepoju Tobi Samuel, also a CAF and FIFA accredited Photojournalist who is the CEO of Oganla Media and a board member of NPFL club, Ikorodu City FC.
The last speaker of the day was Ayoola Adeleke, a CAF-accredited journalist, CEO of Platinum News, and a Sports presenter with Silverbird’s communications, Benin City office.
All the speakers took turns to educate participants on the need to key into the media part of their football clubs and the ways to do so without encountering challenges.
Major highlights of the event were a presentation of awards to some deserving individuals and football clubs for their contributions to the continuous growth of football in the state and their media/online presence.
Amongst the various awardees were Shavik FC and Fortress FC, whose awards were in recognition of their online presence, thereby, Edo football in the media space.
At the end of the event, Mr Fred Newton Erhunwense, the FA Chairman, spoke to the Media in an interview, appreciating the speakers and charging the clubs to use the knowledge gained for their growth.
“First of all, I want to give God the glory for a successful event, and I want to say thank you to the resource persons who have come to enlighten us more about the media business. As the Chairman of the FA board, I’ve told my media team that we have to work more, and I’m giving to invest more in my media team because, without media, we cannot progress in the game of football.”
“I aim to see that all football clubs in the state continue to grow from strength to strength and not just the big team; we want all grassroots football clubs too to be up there in the media space. This program has gone into our calendar, so it will be a yearly event by the grace of God.”
The event was put together by the media committee of the Edo Football Association headed by Mr Kennedy Ugbodaga, a CAF and UEFA-accredited Photojournalist.
