Para soccer players storm Lagos for Easter Challenge

By Ifeanyi Ibeh


Looking for a place to spend some quality time with friends and family during the Easter festivities? If your answer is “yes” and you reside in Lagos, then look no further than the 2009 Cowbell Easter Para Soccer Challenge which comes up at the Indoor Sports Hall, Rowe Park, Yaba, from April 10 to 13—Good Friday to Easter Monday—for some high octane, fast-paced action.

This year’s championship, the second to be organised by Lagos-based firm, Total Consult, following last year’s inaugural edition, will have eight teams in attendance, including four from Rivers State.

The defending champions, Total Konsult Terrors, will be hoping to retain their title at the end of the four-day championship but in doing that, they will have to see off the challenge likely to be put up by the likes of last year’s losing finalists Lead, New Afrika Shrine (NAS) Warriors, and the visiting teams from Rivers State—Obagla United, Amaechi Babes, Team Rivers and Play House—if they are to get a share of the over one million naira prize money on offer.

Total Consult’s CEO, Theo Lawson, was last year able to bring a handful of well-meaning Nigerians together to adopt teams and show interest and support for the physically challenged. Prominent among these well-meaning individuals were Yeni Kuti, the daughter of the late music icon, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, and Bright ‘Basket Mouth’ Okpocha, who is one of Nigeria’s leading comic acts.

For Kuti, adopting a team wasn’t a hard decision to reach, especially as she is often in the company of paraplegics who regularly troupe into the New Afrika Shrine owned by her brother, the musician, Femi.

The NAS Warriors aren’t, however, the only team aiming to dethrone the defending champions, as last year’s losing finalists, Lead, equally have their sights on snatching the title currently held by the Total Konsult Terrors.

“We will be hoping to go one spot better than we did last year when we finished in second place,” said Lead’s owner, Tayo Popoola.

Gogo Iwo-Brown, who owns Play House para soccer team, also has her eyes set on winning the Cowbell Easter Para Soccer Challenge. And in the event of her side not emerging victorious at the end of the tournament, the Port Harcourt-based Iwo-Brown feels one of the three other teams from the Rivers State capital will carry the day.

“Rivers has one of the best teams in Nigeria and teams from the state have always done well at the Sports Festival,” she said. “So if we don’t end up winning the tournament, I believe the other teams from Rivers stand a very good chance of winning it.

“We are really excited about this tournament. This is a welcome development and we hope a lot of people come out to watch these special people, and we hope there will be many more tournaments like this.”