The M.K.O Abiola National Stadium came alive as media organizations in the city converged for the Sports Writers’ Association of Nigeria (SWAN) football tournament, the second edition of the Emeka Ejiofor Cup in Abuja.
Media organizations including Voice of Nigeria (VON), The Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), African Independent Television (AIT), News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), The Nigerian Customs Broadcasting Network (NCBN) and TVC News, took to the football pitch to determine the best football playing media organization in the FCT.
Gidado Usman, Coach and team manager of VON said the event was an amazing opportunity for Abuja based media practitioners to test their physical abilities outside the newsroom.
“Generally there is this perception that most sports writers don’t know anything about football,” Usman said. “Some people think that footballers are different from sports writers, but I want to tell the whole world that most sports writers have either played active football in clubs at the national level or they have in one way or the other participated in sporting activities.”
“For instance, I am a CAF licensed coach, I have played in the Nigerian league and I have coached the national team of this country both the U-17 and the women national team.”
“Generally when you work, you need rest and the only way to rest is when you engage in recreational activities and you sweat out and refresh your brain and that is when you have enough concentration to write your reports. So this type of activity is very important for sports writers,” Usman concluded.
Recreation
The team captain of the VON football team, Salisu Mohammed, re-emphasized the significance of this recreational activity.
“This is an activity that is supposed to happen regularly, we don’t have to wait to the end of the year to bring journalists together to engage in physical and sports activities which would help a long way in easing the stress in us when we are doing our jobs in the office,” Mohammed said.
The second edition of the Emeka Ejiofor Cup football competition organized by the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria, SWAN enters day three.
After the preliminary round, four teams — NTA, NAN, NCBN, and AIT — qualified for the finals and third place position. The finals and the third-place match is scheduled to hold on Thursday at the M.K.O Abiola National Stadium, Abuja, Nigeria.
The final between the NTA and NAN will be the repeat of the first edition of the Emeka Ejiofor Cup, which was first contested between the media organizations in 2019. The 2020 edition of the competition could not hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Here are the results of matches played:
Group A:
- NTA 1 VS FRCN 0
- NCBN 1 VS TVC NEWS 0
- NTA 1 VS NCBN 0
- FRCN 0 VS NCBN 1
- NTA 2 VS TVC NEWS 0
- FRCN 0 VS TVC NEWS 1
GROUP B:
- NAN 1 VS VON 0
- NAN 1 VS AIT 0
- AIT 1 VS VON 0
