By CHIEDU UCHE OKOYE

Princess Helen Mbakwe, the ZLP senatorial candidate for Anambra Central, is sponsoring the Princess Helen Mbakwe Women Football Champion's League Competition, which has the theme, 'she can play football'.

The female football competition in which twelve teams will participate to win laurels and cash prizes will start on October 24, 2026 at Eziowelle civic centre, Eziowelle, Anambra state.

Women football teams, schools' female football teams, and female football academies are eligible to take part in the competition.

And the participating twelve female football teams, which are placed in four groups, will compete to win laurels and cash prizes estimated to be N600,000.

Speaking to this journalist about the competition, Mr. Kingsley Nweke thanked Princess Helen Mbakwe for sponsoring the competition, saying that hosting the competition in Anambra state would lead to the discovery of hidden football talents in the state.

"What Princess Helen Mbakwe is doing is highly commendable. Organizing football competition at the grassroots level will lead to the discovery of football talents, who will hone their football skills and mature to play for professional football teams and Nigeria's national female football teams," Nweke said.

Also commenting on the football competition, Miss Ngozi Ikechukwu, who is a budding female footballer, expressed her gratitude to Princess Helen Mbakwe for providing the opportunity and platform for budding female footballers like her to display their immense football skills.

"I am thankful to Princess Helen Mbakwe for giving us-budding female footballers-the opportunity and platform to display our football skills before football scouts and club owners," Ikechukwu said.

More so, Chief John Nwachukwu, who is a football journalist, hailed Princess Mbakwe for her football initiative, stating that organizing the female football competition was a way of empowering the girl-child, and erasing the notion that the female gender is inferior to the male one.

•Chiedu Uche Okoye is a poet and public affairs commentator.