The NCF National Men’s Championship begins as zonal elimination games in the South and Western Zone concluded. The Championship which is the highest grade events will feature 8 state teams from across the country. The qualification format for the National Sports Festival with saw only the 1st placed team from the zonal qualification was also used as the criteria for selecting the teams for this tournament.
Kaduna State topped the qualification group from the North West zone while Kwara State secured the qualification ticket from the North Central Zone. In the South East, Anambra State dominated proceedings while Lagos State was too strong for all other in the South West zone. Delta State emerged winners from the South-South as Edo State qualified automatically as host state.
The Zonal qualifiers to determine the last 2 teams to make up the 8 teams structure for this tournament was conducted in Port Harcourt and Ibadan respectively. Port Harcourt zone had Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Ebonyi and Imo State in participation while Ibadan zone featured Oyo and Ogun State. Rivers State emerged winners after beating Ebonyi State in the final match while Oyo State beat Ogun State to complete the lots.
Teams participating in the tournament:
- Edo State (Host)
- Delta State
- Rivers State
- Lagos State
- Oyo State
- Kwara State
- Kaduna State
- Anambra State
Draws have been concluded and tournament will begin on the 22nd of March 2021 with Lagos opening the fixtures with Anambra State. The group matches will be Twenty20 format while semi-finals and final will be 50 overs format.
Complete fixtures for the tournament.
