Ifako-Ijaiye Novelty Football Tournament: Messiah FC Beats Future Pro FC One-Nil To Retain Championship
••• Goes Home With N0.8Million Cash Prize
By People’s Voice Nigeria | News
The Ifako-Ijaye Football Competition, Second Edition, hosted by two jolly friends, Otunba Amb. Eyitayo Ogunmola (Eyi-Eko) and Otunba Tobi Richard Sesi (JP), came to a close on Sunday, August 13th, as the final of the competition was played between Messiah FC who is also the defending champion of the first edition, and Future Pro FC.
The final of the competition was played at the African Church Primary School in Ifako-Ijaiye, Lagos State, as Messiah Football Club beat their counterparts by a lone goal to retain their winning title of the competition.
The one (1) nil victory in favour of Messiah FC, the defending champion of the Ifako-Ijaiye Football Competition, won the club a grand prize of Eight Hundred Thousand Naira (N800,000) in the second edition of the competition.
Team Messiah Football Club
The football tournament was organised by Otunba Eyitayo Ogunmola, aka Eyi-Eko, and Otunba Tobi Richard Sesi, a.k.a. JP, with the mission of uniting the communities in the Ifako-Ijaiye Local Government Area through sports.
Eyitayo, a Nigerian US-based tech entrepreneur and the CEO of Utiva, a global talent development company that has helped over 45,000 Africans learn technology skills and supported major startups and enterprises to hire talents among Africans and minorities. Eyitayo believes that sports are what bring people together without a sentiment of religion, tribe, etc.; hence, his journey into sports with his friend JP was to unify the youths of their communities through sports.
Team Future Pro Football Club
Eyi-Eko, while speaking to sports newsmen at the tournament, said their mission is to help youths with skills that will help them attract international opportunities and engage the government to bring in policies that will change the people.
Speaking on his sponsorship’s partnership, Eyitayo, CEO of Utiva and Convener of the Eyi-Eko Movement, said he and his friend, Otunba Tobi Richard, popularly known as JP, were childhood friends who grew up together and have known for over 30 years. “Anytime I am doing something, he is always rallying around it and trying to support it; likewise, I always rally around anything he wants to do, trying to support him anytime he is doing something.”
“He is an intelligent person, so we just thought that we should rally around and invest in young people, but football is not the only thing we want to do together; we are building an SME, a skill training centre, and some other initiatives for the community.”
Eyi-Eko disclosed that he invited 15 scouts within and outside Nigeria to see great talented footballers in Ifako-Ijaiye Community. Aside from monetary rewards for the teams, “the most important thing to me is to provide a source of attraction to these people by inviting expertise and scouts to source and identify talent here, and who knows, the next Jay Jay Okocha could be from Ijaiye? he said.
Organizing Committee with Team Messiah FC
Organizing Committee with Refrees
“Ifako-Ijaiye is building a standard stadium, I give kudos to the government for that, and we also want to rally around that for it. We have set up a committee of about five people to go for a novelty match, a boxing competition, table tennis, long tennis, and other things that can attract people, and after this competition, we are going to host an international competition that is going to be for under 14 footballers. The goal is to identify them while they are quite young,” he said.
He urged government to support young people on this and stop building bureaucracies that may hinder the youth from accessing their pace. “As Ifako-Ijaiye Local Government is doing well, other local governments should do the same,” he stressed.
Organizing Committee with Team Future Pro FC
Comparing international football players to local football, he said, “What we need is to build infrastructure.” According to him, the global footballers all started locally. “There are a lot of talents in them that can compete with the international football standards, and they need a platform to shine. That’s why we are doing this to build an infrastructure where they can strive,” he said.
On part, Otunba Tobi Richard Sesi (JP) said, “This competition was organized just for the youths in Ifako-Ijaiye to let them know that their talent is not wasted.” “We are not just based on sports; we have the academic aspect, vocational studies. For now, we are doing it through sports. We have platforms, agents, and scouts we are collaborating with. So, if any talents are discovered in this sport competition, we will know how to push them forward for global standards.”
Competition Rewards and Prizes Won
1st Position: Messiah Football Club, Prize: N800,000
2nd Position: Feature Football Club, Prize: N500,000
3rd Position: Akanbite Football Club, Prize 200,000
Other prizes won include;
• Golden Boots, presented to Momoh Kabiru of Akanbite Football Club as the highest goal scorer of the tournament with five goals.
• The most valuable player of the tournament award was presented to Daniel Job of Future Pro Football Club.
• The Best Goalkeeper Award was presented to Ismail Monsuru of Messiah Football FC.
Otunba Eyitayo Ogunmola (Eyi-Eko),sponsor of the Ifako-Ijaiye Novelty Football Tournament, receives media from Chief Gbolahan Ogundimu, Baale of Iju, Lagos.
Otunba Tobi Richard Sesi (JP), sponsor of the Ifako-Ijaiye Novelty Football Tournament, receives media from Chief Gbolahan Ogundimu, Baale of Iju, Lagos.
It was also gathered that the first edition of the Ifako-Ijaiye Football Tournament was sponsored by the duo in February and won by the same Messiah FC with a grand prize of five hundred thousand (N500,000).
According to Olamilekan Fatai, who is the chief organiser of the tournament, the third edition of the competition is in the pipeline, aiming to commence this year in December. Though it will be targeted at younger teenagers and female footballers, he also added that aside from the benefits of the tournament, it’s also an avenue for small-scale business women to sell their products and make ends meet.
I also want to give thanks to God that the competition did not record any form of injury. And we, the youths of the Ifako-Ijaiye community, are very happy with Eyi-Eko and his friend JP for using this avenue to unite the youths in the community.
