9th December, 2010
Many grassroots football competitions took place in the second quarter of this year but Boska Cup and Olohunwa Cup had the largest entries as far as football championship was concerned in Lagos State.
About 128 clubs in Lagos State registered for this year Boska Cup played across the four centres in the state. The centres are Police College, Ikeja, Ikeja Cantoment and Astro Turf Football pitch of National Stadium.
The competition, which was successfully organised by Lagos Divisonal Football Association headed by Dotun Coker, attracted media publicity and large spectators in all centres.
Many clubs who participated in the championship abandoned some football competitions to play Boska Cup not because of anything but the way the competition was organised over the years motivated some club owners to show interest in the two-month event.
Many club owners who featured in the competition had valued for their money as sponsor, Orange Drug Limited, sole marketer of Boska products in Nigeria, dished out Boska Paracetamol, biro, T-Shirt and packs of Table Water to all the participants and other stakeholders to add glamour to the tournament.
The eight teams that qualified for the quarter final was kitted by the sponsor. All the quarter final matches were played at the Astro turf football pitch, National Stadium.
The standard and officating of the competition was high as participating clubs gave a good account of themselves throughout the encounter. The defending champions, Jah United, who were favourites of the tournament based on their previous performances in the competition were sent parking after they lost 1-2 to Labro Football club of Agege in the round of 32.
In the final of the competition, it was Mountain of Fire Football team of Yaba MFM that stole the show as they defeated Lub Bak of Yaba 7-6 on penalty after one goal a piece in the pulsating encounter watched by a large crowd.
Lub Bak Team Manager, Lookman Bakare, who was sad about his team defeat, said both teams played good football but the better side won.
“It was painful .We were in the final to lift the cup but my players were not their best in the penalty shootout. I congratulated MFM for their performance. They were focused throughout the encounter and got it at the end of the day,†he said
Another grassroots football competition that was given thumb up in the second quarter of this year was the U-15 Olohunwa Soccer Championship. When the competition was about to start many critics believed that the Afo Football Association headed by Afolabi Onanaike could not host the competition successfully, but they were proven wrong.
The two-month championship sponsored by Chairman National Union Roads Transports Workers Lagos Chapter, NURTW, Alhaji Akani Olohunwa, attracted 86 NURTW branches in the state that participated in the championship. All the matches were played at the Campos Sports Centre.
The final between Surulere and Oshodi Branches football teams attracted a large crowd at the sports centre. Both the Cup donor, Alhaji Olohunwa and Alhaji Musiliu Ayinde Akinsanya, popularly known as Olu Omo, controlled Surulere and Oshodi Branches respectively
The final encounter could not end at the regulation time as both teams played one all draw in the regulation time before Oshodi won the penalty shootout 13 -12 to emerge the winner of the tournanment this year.
