Umueve Village has won the 2020 Ajalli Welfare Union Football Tournament.
Umueve village beat Obinikpa Village three zero in a keenly contested match to lift the trophy.
The tournament powered by Uzoma Ofong Foundation started last week with Inter-village competition and at the finals also featured hundred metres race for boys and girls from different villages.
Umueve who lost 1-2 to Obinikpa in the open game of the tournament scored two goals in the first half and efforts by Obinikpa to get back into the game in the second half were frustrated by the robust defense of Umueve who eventually made the score line 3-0 at the dying minutes of the game.
In addition to the trophy and medals, Umueve received two hundred thousand naira prize money and Obiniikpa collected one hundred thousand naira while Umuabiama who were second runners up received fifty thousand naira.
The best behaved team, the most valuable player, the highest goal scorer and the best goalkeeper all received prizes while winners of the boys and girls hundred metres race were equally rewarded with prize money.
Speaking later, the sponsor of the tournament Mr Uzoma Ofong expressed satisfaction with the outstanding success of the tournament and explained that the exercise aims at providing youths of the area opportunity to showcase their talents and skills and expressed the hope that the tournament would produce players that would play for national and international teams to motivate others to embrace sports.
Mr Ofong disclosed that the best of the players are to be registered to play in the state challenge cup competition while those in athletics would equally be encouraged to attain their full potential as part of measures to unlock sports potential in the area. Also speaking, the Chairman of the tournament organising Committee and former Secretary of State Football Association, Mr Victor Nwangwu commended high standard of the game and extolled the sponsor for his passion and commitment to youth development which he noted provided opportunities for young people to interact with each other and build bridges of understanding.
In their separate reactions, some stakeholders in the area including Mr Emeka Arizor, Mr Isaiah Onuogu and Mr Angus Ochiogu observed that the tournament is recording steady growth and improvement while lauding high level of discipline and peaceful conduct of players and fans.
The Captain of Umueve team Sochima Okeke commended the fighting spirit of the players while the Captain of Obinikpa team Martin Okonkwo who was injured and replaced in early minutes of the first half lamented that the unfortunate incident adversely affected the performance of the team.
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