From Esther Akaa, Lafia
Defending Champions, Greater Tomorrow Football Club (FC) of Lafia has defeated Daddare FC 2 – 1 at the opening of the 6th edition of the Mailafia tournament, played in Daddare, Obi Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.
The game which was played on Saturday at the Daddare Government Secondary School playing field, saw Shehu Mohammed of Greater Tomorrow FC scoring the first goal barely 15 minutes into the game.
At the 32nd minutes, Daddare FC’s Adamu Umar equalized to end the game 1-1 before the mark of an hour.
However, the resumption of the second half saw both sides trading tackles until the 75th minutes when another Greater Tomorrow’s player, Alakija Habibu netted another goal for the Lafia based side to snatched the important three points at the blast of the final whistle thus, ending the first match of the 6th edition 2-1 to the admiration of spectators.
In a post match interview with journalists, the organiser of the tournament, Yakubu Mailafia, said the essence of the competition was to give the youths the opportunity to showcase their talents and promote the game of football at the grassroots, in view of the fact that sports now leads to social and economy transformation globally.
Mailafia stated further that the aim was also to consolidate on the peace and unity which was hitherto established from the 1st edition of the tournament and assured of better outing in subsequent editions.
“The 6th edition of this tournament is a deviation from the normal ones. We are used to 16 teams playing in the 1st to 5th edition of the competition, however, this time around we started with 32 teams and we are hoping to grow on it.
“It is clear that everybody is excited and we are having a feel of good football and my passion is to continue to develop football at the grassroots because this aspect has been neglected.
“We are also having a lot of plans for under 10 and 12 because we want to grow them at that early stage and we hope to have income that will help us go into teens football and subsequently we will start developing the women aspect,” he said.
Also speaking in an interview, Chairman, Nasarawa State Universal Basic Education Board (NSUBEB), Muhamme Dan’azimi (Barayan Daddare) commended the sponsor of the tournament, calling on the people of the state to support the initiative.
He, therefore, said that NSUBEB was synergizing with the state Ministry of Youth and Sports Development to revitalise sporting competitions in both primary and secondary schools across the state to harness talents from the younger ones, adding that modalities are on to ensure that the vision is achieved in no distant time.
On his part, former coach of Nasarawa United FC and current Technical Adviser of Wikki Tourists FC of Bauchi State, Kabiru Dogo said the competition will no doubt harness talents that will stand a chance in Nigeria’s premiership leagues.
“We appreciate the sponsor of the tournament for the wonderful work he has been doing with the youths at the grassroot and call on the people of the state to support him,” he said.
Speaking in separate interviews, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Obi I constituency at the state House of Assembly in the 2023 general election, Farouk Ofoku and the Chief Executive Officer, Energy Global Resources, Nuhu Danlami both commended Mailafia for the initiative.
They said that the tournament will go a long way in promoting peaceful co-existence among the diverse ethnic groups in the state, as well as address youths restiveness.
The duo, therefore, called on youths to shun all acts capable of creating confusion during the forthcoming general election and come out enmass to canvas support for candidates of their choices.
The Voice reports that the competition which began on the October 15, 2022, will end on December 26, this year.
