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The Covenant
Football League had seen six weeks of action before it ended during the
Easter weekend with Peter Pioneers winning by a lone goal. The League
which comprised of eight teams, with all the players being members of
the Covenant Christian Centre, saw the old and young involved and they
all engaged with fanfare and excitement though with a competitive
spirit.

A look at the
composition of the teams that played in the league brought up some
questions on what the essence of the league really was.

David Mohammed,
spokesperson for the league, explains that the league was not created
to groom talents but to encourage camaraderie amongst members of the
church. “Someone in church came up with the idea that we should do
something that would foster interaction, friendship and relationship
and the league was a solution for it. We have five services on Sunday
and the whole congregation may never have cause to interact but with
football, we know we can get everyone involved.”

“We divided the
congregation into eight teams according to their birthdays. From
January 1 – February 14, is one group, which was named Abraham United.
And that demarcation gave birth to the eight teams.

The eight was then divided into two groups of four teams. The league kicked off on the March 19,” says Mohammed.

The teams that
comprised group A were Peter Pioneers, FC Zion, House of David and Sons
of Issachar. In group B, Rock FC led the pack, followed by House of
Judah, Jordan Crossers and Abraham United. Each of the teams in the
group played each other and the two top teams in each group moved into
the semi finals and then to the finals.

And the games began

“We started
preparations around February with trials and training. Those who
indicated interest were tried to see how fit they were and the coaches
picked those they wanted,” says Mohammed. After trials and training,
the teams were set to battle each other for glory.

Abraham United,
Sons of David, Jordan Crossers and House of David could not go past the
group stages as they were all beaten by the more dominant teams. Group
A winners Peter Pioneers went on to face House of Judah who scraped
through to the last four after a 2-2 draw with Rock FC in Group B. They
were not as lucky in the semifinal as the Pioneers were able to score
two goals without reply. In the other semifinal game, group B leaders,
Rock FC just squeezed past FC Zion through a penalty that was converted
by Goodness Bamidele.

The final showdown

After five weeks of
action, the teams featuring in the final got down to preparing for
winning the trophy. What started as a fun event had become very
competitive; with each of the teams having their own supporters’ club
and cheerleaders.

Easter Monday saw
them troop out en masse to cheer their teams. One of those who came to
cheer the teams, Ese Roberts, explains that though the team she was
rooting for had been eliminated, she had come to show support for Rock
FC. “I love the way they play. For me, so far, they are the best team
in this tournament.”

The day began with
the losers’ final between House of Judah and FC Zion. In that match,
Lion of Judah lost out to FC Zion by a lone goal scored early in the
first half. The Patrick Orlu-coached team was very formidable in the
defence and did not give their opponent room to manoeuvre. FC Zion thus
triumphed to take the third place.

Then the match for
the day started. Rock FC, on the evidence of overwhelming crowd support
had to confront the Pioneers who had not conceded a goal and wanted to
keep that proud record. The only goal of the game came just seven
minutes into the first half and proved to be the clincher. The scorer
was Pioneers striker, Nonso Chidi. The goal which bamboozled Rocks FC,
went straight into the net with goalkeeper left watching.

The tempo of the
second half changed with the game becoming faster paced but still none
of the teams were able to convert chances that were at a premium to
goal.

Bamidele was
particularly impressive but he was not always allowed to move as he was
closely watched by two defenders. At the end of regulation time, the
Pioneers won. Roberts, who was disappointed that Rock FC did not win,
said, “It is unfair. Did you see that guy that was always pretending to
fall whenever they touched him? The referee should have given him a red
card,” she exclaimed afterwards.

Medals were awarded
to the first, second and third place winners, while the champions,
Peter Pioneers was awarded a trophy by Poju Oyemade, senior pastor of
Covenant Christian Centre, the organisers of the league. Other awards
given out were the highest goal scorer award, which was won by Adeyemo
Adetunji, who scored a total of four goals while Idowu Bakare of Peter
Pioneer was given the golden glove award – the best goalkeeper of the
series.

Mohammed at the
end, expressed happiness at the successful conclusion of the event and
he hoped that the next one would be greater. “Though the women were not
involved as players, they were very active as cheerleaders and
supporters and we hope that we get something for them also.”

Niyi Adepoju, a
member of the church also lauded the initiative as being very good.
“Some of these people here today that I did not know before are now my
friends and it was because this avenue was made available to us.”

The women and children were however involved in side attractions like the tug of war, sack race and the egg and spoon race.