The second edition of the GTBank Super Zonal Soccer Championship (Principal’s Cup), a soccer competition organized for Senior High Schools in the Greater Accra Region has been launched, following the completion of behind-the-scene planning and preparations by both GTBank and Ghana Education Service (GES) officials.
This year’s competition, which is slated for the 18th and 19th of May 2016 at the El-wak Sports Stadium in Accra will feature teams from four zones representing a total number of forty four second cycle institutions.
Players are selected from schools within each zone to form a team. There are two teams from each zone; a male team and a female team.
The GTBank sponsorship package for this year, amounting to about One Hundred and Twenty Thousand Ghana Cedis (GH120,000) covers the cost of hiring the venue, transportation subsidies, lunch and snacks for all participating teams. The rest are eight (8) branded footballs, eight (8) sets of jerseys (144 units of jerseys) with matching hoses, eight (8) pairs of goalkeepers’ gloves and all publicity associated with the event.
The winning team of the GTBank Super Zonal Soccer Championship will be rewarded with the Principal’s Cup. GTBank has also instituted individual awards that come with a cash prize of GH¢1,000 each and a free bank account for participating players who are selected for various awards. The individual awards are Best Player (male and female); Goal King and Queen; Best Defender (male and female) and Best Goal Keeper (male and female). All participating students will also be presented with certificates.
Managing Director of Guaranty Trust Bank (Ghana) Limited, Mr. Lekan Sanusi expressed his anticipation for a keener competition this year. He stated that, “Last year, we witnessed a keenly contested tournament amongst the zones, with Zones 2 and 4 emerging winners in the female and male categories respectively. We hope to see a more exciting and competitive tournament this year.”
Further, he said, “By supporting the Super Zonal Soccer Championship, as part of our corporate social responsibility activities, we believe that we are helping to further develop youth soccer in the country, engender healthy competition amongst schools in Greater Accra and also making dreams of some of the players come true; because out of this competition, some talents could be unearthed.”
Greater Accra Regional Director of Education, Mr. Peter Attafuah expressed appreciation at the adoption of the soccer competition by GTBank. “We are grateful that this year too, GTBank has come on board as promised, to help make this event successful. They have been of tremendous help to us and we know that one day, these young players would proudly narrate their story and GTBank would be mentioned as having contributed to their successes.”
It will be recalled that Guaranty Trust Bank (Ghana) Limited, last year, reached an agreement with the Ghana Education Service to adopt and sponsor the Super Zonal Soccer Competition for a period of five years, hence the name was changed from the Greater Accra Super Zonal Soccer Competition to the GTBank Super Zonal Soccer Championship, with the Principal’s Cup at stake.
Guaranty Trust Bank (Ghana) Limited, as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities, has embarked on various charitable endeavours in the country since inception. The Bank’s CSR activities hinges on four key sustainable development pillars ranging from the development of Sports, Arts and Culture; support for Education; the Environment; and Health.
Signed by:
Ben Ackah-Mensah
Group Head, Corporate Affairs