The Ekiti Queens and Ikere United have emerged winners of the female and male categories of the 2021 BAFEM Football Competition.
Ikere United defeated Are FC 2-1 to emerge the winner in the men’s category, while Ekiti Queens beat the Ekiti Queen Bees 1-0 to emerge the female champions.
The grand finale of the competition was held on Saturday at the Oluyemi Kayode Stadium, Ado-Ekiti.
The sponsor of the competition and member representing Emure, Gbonyin and Ekiti East (APC, Ekiti South 2) Rep. Femi Bamisile, described sports, particularly football, as a unifying force of the people.
Bamisile said going by the economic, unemployment and security challenges confronting the country at the moment, something needed to divert the attention of the citizens, especially the youths, from partaking in social vices.
“Football is the most unifying sport in the world even when countries are at war, when they say there is a football competition, everybody comes together.
“If we look at the situation we have found ourselves in Nigeria, the youths, wh0 form 75 per cent of the population, are at the receiving end of the economic meltdown and unemployment.
“This BAFEM competition is my own way of taking the youths away from social vices and getting them engaged meaningfully,” Bamisile said.
Also speaking, the Ekiti Football Association (FA) Chairman, Bayo Lalenge, assured of his administration’s commitment to develop the youths through sports, particularly football.
Lalenge said, “We hope that competition will showcase participants to the national teams and leagues.”
The tournament, which started three months ago, had 20 teams comprising four women teams and 16 men’s teams.
The highpoint of the event was the presentation of cash gifts to winners.
In women’s category, the winner received N200,000, the second got N150,000 and N100,000 went to third place winners, with N50,000 awarded as consolation prize.
The winner in the men’s category got N500,000, second runner up got N300,000, while the third runner up got N200,000.
