The Creative Championship – organizers of the Creative Championship League (TCC) – held its 2023/24 season Press Conference in Lagos on Wednesday.

It was an event staged by the board of the TCC League to discuss the progress made by the league since its first edition in 2020. In addition, the parley also served as an avenue to introduce the new set of sponsors for the new season to the general public and to also disclose the successes of the League so far.

Speaking at the event, Akinyelu Olajide, one of the directors and owner of Gbagada FC, reiterated the reason behind the creation of the TCC and how it has grown over the years.

“The TCC started in the year 2020. It is a league that few privately owned clubs came together to form the initiative and the main reason is the lack of enough competitive matches for the third tier – Nigeria Nationwide League – clubs in Nigeria. We started with 8 teams, we had 10 teams in the league last season and we have expanded to 12 teams now.”

Currently, the 12 teams in the league are; Beyond Limits, Gbagada, Broad City, Valiant FC, Imperial FC, Dino SC, Atlantic Business, Dannaz, Iganmu FC, Sporting Lagos Academy and the latest members – Real Sapphire and Escola United. Asides the league, the TCC Cup is also being played by the abovementioned teams.

On the other hand, Olalekan Oyinlola, founder of Escola United, had this to say about why his club are associating with the TCC brand: “We wanted to connect with like minded individuals , forward thinking club owners and a solid platform for our talents to be developed furthermore. We did a lot of research on the tournaments in the country and the participating teams – we eventually settled for the TCC because of its organization, vision and the purpose – development.”

The TCC League has Bet9ja, Nigeria’s foremost gaming platform, as one of its sponsors, others include Value Jet, new sponsors – Optimus Bank and Casava. Meanwhile, Wyscout is the official data partner of the TCC – the first league to utilize the platform n Nigeria.

Speaking about their reason for working with the TCC brand, Oyinade Osobajo, Corporate Communications Head of Optimus Bank, said: “We are bringing digital technology and modalities that the young people can relate with and we are also passionate about the development of talents especially on the platform of the TCC.”

TCC has seen a number of players move from the league to foreign leagues while many others made the leap to the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL). Some of the players that have moved include; Ebenezer Akinsanmiro (Beyond Limits) to Inter Milan, Solomon Agbalaka (Broad City) to FC Sochi, Babatunde Akinsola (Valiant) to Real Valladolid and many more.

On the part of the clubs, Ijebu United got promoted to the Nigeria National League (NNL) after the maiden TCC season, Beyond Limits and Dannaz played in the final of the FA Cups in Ogun State and Lagos State respectively recently, while Beyond Limits also gained promotion to the NNL this season.

The 2023/24 season kicked off last weekend and games are being played in three centres: Mobolaji Johnson Arena, Lagos, Dipo Dina Stadium, Ijebu Ode and Remo Stars Stadium, Ikenne.

The media parley, which was brief and colourful, was attended by directors of the league, representatives of the corporate sponsors, journalists and other media persons.

For enquiries: visit – https://thecreativechampionship.com/ or send a mail to official@thecreativechampionship.com