By By Odoch Ben Sylvester
Four Payams have been unable to participate in the ongoing inter Payam tournament in Magwi County due to a lack of funding.
The annual Inter-Payam tournament, an SPLM imitative, is held in January to foster peaceful co-existence among the Payams of Magwi county, Eastern Equatoria state.
The two-week event kicked off on January 5th, 2024.
Mr. Acaye Ben Okee the Secretary-General for Magwi County Local Football Association told journalists that the tournament started well on the first day with a match between Pogee and Magwi payam of group C.
But a lot of gaps were realized on the second day where only 12 Payams reported with 4 missing.
Acaye revealed that four payams namely Omeo, Pageri, Kerepi and Nimule payam failed to report and participate in the ongoing inter payam tournament.
“The tournament started well on date 5th January 2024 as the opening game of inter Payam between Magwi Payam and Pogee Payam in group c and on the second day where the game was supposed to be played they realized a lot of gaps because four of the payam did not turn up for the tournament due to financial contrary,” he said.
According to him, 16 Payams were to participate in this game but only 12 showed up.
He disclosed that their office receives letters from those payams outlining inadequate financial support, transport; food, and insufficient preparation are among the contributing factors for the failure.
“We received letters from those missing Payam concerning their absence in the tournament, we had
“One of the reasons for their absence was a financial problem, food items, transportation means and their preparation level for playing the match,” he added.
Mr. Ben stressed that they considered the apology of the four Payams who failed to participate since it was not intentional.
He advised the participating Payams to shun conflict since Magwi County is a peace-loving county.