MTN Soccer Academy Show 3 kicks off

Registration for entrance into the 3rd edition of Ghana’s first sports reality show, the MTN Soccer Academy has begun. Any good footballer between the ages of 17 and 20 can take on the chance of becoming one of 14 housemates who will eventually compete for mouth-watering prizes on offer for the 2009 winner in a competition called MTN Soccer Academy Ghana-Nigeria 2009. Anybody keen on grabbing on the prizes which include a launching pad for a professional football career courtesy an assured contract with a local club, just have to text their Name, Age and Region or Federal State of residence to the MTN shortcode 1951 and they could be the lucky winner.

All these became apparent after the launch of the programme at the Academy House last Monday. In a year of many innovations for the OMP-engineered football reality show, the best of them certainly is the expansion of the event to admit contestants from West African neighbours Nigeria. It means that, registration has begun simultaneously in both countries where response is expected to rise above all previous records.

“The successes of our two previous shows have received commendations from everywhere and we have got requests from many countries to also organize something similar. Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya even want to collaborate with us for East African soccer reality show. So we are using Nigeria as the platform to showcase the event to the rest of Africa,” Metro TV GCEO Tallal Fattal said in his welcome address and presentation of the Soccer Academy (3) Concept. Add to it the endless rivalry between Ghana and Nigeria and you are promised a splendid competition when seven contestants from each country converge on the Academy House in Ridge, Accra for the real show in the last week of September. Long before then, screening of the 5000 lucky applicants in each country to be selected from the huge numbers expected to apply, will take place on selected dates in Accra, Kumasi and Lagos beginning August 17. The final 14 housemates will compete in front of an expanded TV audience as not only are Metro TV retaining their broadcast rights, the event will also be on show simultaneously in Nigeria on Africa Independent Television (AIT).

Not only that, the weekly eviction shows will receive added boost from patronage by Nigerian stars and music celebrities as well as their Ghanaian colleagues who have entertained the reality show’s past two editions. An expanded 5-a-side pitch and live candid camera segments will also give MTN Soccer Academy Three “fun, drama, high entertainment and that big brother feeling,” as Mr. Tallal Fattal puts it.

The expected huge applications and TV audiences also serve OMP’s other intention to help the show’s sponsors optimize their relative value on a continental scale. It is for this reason that Title Sponsors MTN have expressed their sense of pride and corporate fulfillment at being in the frontline in the quest to unearth future talents. According to MTN CMO George Andah, his company. “Africa could have produced many more Appiahs, Essiens and Eto’Os if the Academy reality show has always been around. That is why we are proud and will continue to sponsor the show. MTN Ghana and MTN Nigeria will work together for the success of this year’s competition,” stated Mr. Andah who recently received the grand award of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana (CIMG) Marketing Man of the Year.