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Nigerian Football

PENALTY NIGHTMARES AS AKWA UNITED LIFTS AITEO CUP

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Akwa United emerged the winners of the maiden edition of AITEO Cup on a day penalty kick skill went on holiday. Final score at the final match duel stood at 0-0 as neither Akwa United nor Niger Tornadoes was able to find the net in the flood-lit match at the Agege Stadium.

The duel had to be decided by penalty kick lottery. Alas virtually all the penalty kick takers was nervous. Twelve kicks in all, but only five were converted as Akwa United won 3-2.  And so, for the second time since 2015, the club has emerged Nigerian champions and will be featuring in the CAF Confederation Cup next year.

Hail Paul Bassey, the chairman of Akwa United. He has proved once more the skills of sports journalists in sports management. Before him, Fan Ndubuoke, another sports journalist of note, led Heartland FC to win the then Federation Cup in 2012.

The AITEO Cup symbolically brings to an end, the Nigerian 2016/17 football season. With kick off a little after 6pm, it was the first time the Nigeria national cup was played almost completely under floodlight. The Nigerian national cup had always held in the afternoon with the exception of the 1977 final match that was held in the morning to enable Nigeria beat CAF deadline for inter-clubs competition.

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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