Nationwide registration for ARS 4 begins

Following the successful launch of the Season 4 of the Airtel Rising Stars U-17 Tournament for boys and girls last week, tournament organisers, Airtel Nigeria, has begun a nationwide registration for youngsters within the age limit.
The registration for participation in the Season 4 of the tournament started on Wednesday and will run till June 27, 2014 across the country.
Talented footballers, male and female, can obtain registration forms from any of the 77 Airtel Express Shops nearest to them nationwide.
The registration heralds the open screening camps in five designated locations, where the participants will be screened for age compliance and given the opportunity to showcase their talents before a team of technical advisers and coaches to stand the chance of being part of the zonal teams to the national finals in Lagos to challenge for honours.
About 1,000 teams comprising 16,000 players are expected to feature in this year’s edition of the ARS.
Not less than 50,000 active participants have been recorded in the last three seasons of the tournament.
Also, as part of efforts to deepen the technical depth of the annual football tournament, five Nigerian ex-internationals have been appointed as technical advisers to the participating youngsters.
The technical advisers include ex-Super Eagles players Mutiu Adepoju, Garba Lawal and Peter Rufai; ex-Super Falcons goal tender, Anne Chiejinne; and Olympic gold medalist, Chioma Ajunwa-Oparah.
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 Nigeria.
It aims at discovering talented students (male and female) of secondary school age and providing them the opportunity to gain football skills and develop into renowned stars.
Airtel Rising Stars is touted as the biggest tournament in the continent and has attracted approximately 18,000 youth teams and 324,000 youth players across 17 countries.
In addition to galvanising the biggest turnout during the championship stages, the programme has also broken new grounds by introducing girls to a pan African tournament, making it the only non-discriminatory tournament in the continent.