The 2021 edition of the Higher Institutions Football League, organized by PACE Sports, kicked off to an exciting start across five centers on Tuesday, April 20. The fixtures for the qualifying round ran through the week and ended in the weekend. The qualification process included two teams emerging from the five zones, across the nation’s goe-political regions, to join the 2019 super four teams on standby in the round of 16 battle.
The qualifiers from Zone A include; veterans UNIMAID Desert Warriors (University of Maiduguri) and Kogi State University with seven and ten points respectively.
From Zone B, FUTMINNA Transformers and ABU Nobles finished first and second in the group after playing out a goalless draw in the final fixture of the qualifying rounds.
Results from Zone C featured LAUTECH and FUTA Tigers qualifications to the next stage while UNILAG Marines, ABUAD Stars and LASU Blazers, the host institution in the Zone, hope for better fates in the next edition.
Zone D qualifiers were UNIBEN Royals finishing 10 points on top of the group, joined by Adekunle Ajasin University with 6 points.
The 5-0 drubbing of the FUNAI Hawks sealed IAUE MInders’ qualification as they join UNN Lions as qualifiers from Zone E of the qualifying rounds.
The University of Ibadan’s UI Pioneers will, however, miss out on the HiFL 2021 edition after their participation did not meet approval for reasons yet unknown at the time of filing this report.
