Winners clinch N1m as Lagos Mini Football League ends

Larry FC and Unification FC each pocketed N1m on Saturday after emerging winners of the men’s and women’s categories of the maiden Lagos Mini Football League, Sunday PUNCH reports.

Larry FC edged G-Innovation 2-1 in a tight men’s final, while Unification FC beat Dream Stars 5-3 in an entertaining women’s decider.

G-Innovation took home N500,000 as runners-up, with Mande FC collecting N250,000 for third place. In the women’s category, Dream Stars earned N500,000 for finishing second, while Ghetto Tigers received N250,000 for third.

The league brought together 30 clubs, 20 in the men’s category and 10 in the women’s, in the six-a-side format.

The chairman of the league, Abdul-Ganiyu Vinod Obasa, said the competition had exceeded expectations for a first edition.

“It is our first time hosting and we are really excited for the quality of football we were able to see. The fitness levels, the skill, the technique from the players, the organisation as well. I have to commend all of the organising committee for the wonderful job they have done, week in, week out. They have been able to pull all of this together and attract a lot of the community, spectators across Lagos State, across Nigeria as a whole,” Obasa said.

He explained that mini football has peculiar rules, including scoring within a particular area of the pitch and restrictions on certain tackles, and said the aim was to make the small-sided game more popular at the grassroots.

“If you can play mini football, even when you play on larger pitches, your technique is better, you are fitter, you can shoot better. Overall, you think it will improve our players technique wise,” he said.

Obasa added that the competition had helped lift Nigerian mini football from the lower levels into the top seven in Africa.

“This competition has taken Nigerian mini football from probably 30-something to about seventh in Africa, because we now have an organised league. Going into this international competition, we will have a well-organised, well-coached team, picked naturally from this competition. I think that will take us a level further in the mini football ranking across Africa and across Nigeria as well,” he said.

The women’s national team is due to feature at an international tournament in Cameroon this month, and the league doubled as a scouting platform for the men’s and women’s national teams.

Obasa also said the league had made a strong impact on the community, giving young people a place to gather and keeping them away from vices.

“All of the young people around the community have a place to come and watch football. Instead of getting involved in vices, they have time to come and spend here. I have to talk about the commerce that is happening here as well. People buying, people selling, getting all of the young people together. For us, sport is a tool, it is a serious business. It is something we should create more platforms for, for many young people to take the opportunity,” he said.

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