…let’s teach out youths how to harness their passion with energy and bring it to the surface to achieve a goal – Says Fr. Obinyan
By Ikhili Ebalu, Benin City
It was a highly competitive two-week football match tournament in Oredo local government area of Edo State as youths with different clubs engaged each other to contest for Rev. Fr. Obinyan 25th Priestly Ordination Gold Cup Competition.
The tournament is to mark the 25th Priestly Ordination of a great Esan born catholic priest, Very Rev. Fr. Andrew Obinyan, a native of Ubiaja in Esan South-East local government area in Edo State.
About 20 different clubs participated in the tournament which later saw Dynamic Football Club, Uzebu All Stars FC, Ogbe FC and Marakana FC participating at the Semi Final Stage.
During the semi-final encounter, Dynamic Football Club defeated Ogbe FC with 2 goals to 1 while Uzebu All Stars Football Club defeated Marakana Football Club with 3 goals to 2 to book their place in the grand finale.
The grand finale of the Rev. Fr. Obinyan 25th Priestly Ordination Gold Cup Competition which took place yesterday, 20th day of October, 2023 at the Ekenwan Campus of the University of Benin, Benin City witnessed enthusiastic crowd across the state to be entertained by Dynamic Football Club and Uzebu All Stars Football Club that made it to the grand finale.
The highly competitive match witnessed goalless draw at the end of the 90 minutes that saw both club battle to score a goal so as to ensure the match ended in full time, but unfortunately no club was ready to let go, and the match thereafter resulted to penalty shoot out. At the end of the penalty shut out, Uzebu All Stars Football Club defeated Dynamic Football Club 5 goals to 3 to win the Rev. Fr. Obinyan 25th Priestly Ordination Gold Cup Competition.
At the end of the competition, journalists spoke to the coaches of Dynamic Football Club and that of Uzebu All Stars Football Club who were excited with the efforts by Very Rev. Fr. Andrew Obinyan to ensure that youths of Edo State are engaged in such competition so as to take them off crimes and drugs.
According to them, “It has been exciting tournament, the competition has exposed spectators to great Edo football players, and it has been interesting ever since the inception of the tournament.
“The tournament initiated by Very Rev. Fr. Andrew Obinyan is a very welcome development knowing fully well that football brings people together, football share love with each other. So, it is a very great initiative to remove the youths from the streets. We would encourage others to emulate the kind gesture of Fr. Andrew Obinyan because he means well for the good people of Edo State.”
Speaking to journalists on what motivated him to engage in the football tournament, the organizer, Very Rev. Fr. Andrew Obinyan said, “Football as they say, if you are able to bring people together with competing interest in the exercise passion in tournament to be able to win for themselves. Then I said to myself teach the youths the value of team playing, teach the value of togetherness even with differences, and teach them also how to harness their passion with energy and bring it to the surface to achieve a goal. So, it is goal oriented, unity, togetherness, friendliness, cordiality and it brings progress.
“Now that it seems the country is not prepare for the youth, they have to prepare for themselves, and God Almighty has already equipped them as the primary investors in their lives to be able to make impact. So, they should encourage themselves, not to allow themselves to be discouraged by anybody or by any circumstance, because what is inside of them is more than what is outside of them, and they can excel when they are purposeful, when they have vision and when they are focused, they cannot just think that it is over, they should believe in themselves while believing in God.
“It is hoped that at the end of this, somebody else would take it up and for me, I hope and pray God sustaining us and preserving us, it would be a regular occurrence.”