North Central wins National Amputee Zonal football championship

By Ifeanyi Eduzor
North Central geopolitical zone has emerged winners of the just concluded National Amputee Zonal football championship held at the Legacy Pitch of the National Stadium Surulere Lagos.
In an entertaining finals, the team defeated hard fighting players from South West by 4-3 penalties after their game ended 0-0 at regulation time.
Prior to the finals, North West beat South East by 2-0 to emerge as the third best team of the competition put together by Amputee Football Federation of Nigeria.
Speaking at the finals, President of the Federation, Paul Maduakor explained that the competition is part of the Federation’s plans to further develop the game and also afforded the technical committee opportunity to select new crop of national team players.
According to him, the championship which is hoped to be organised more regularly gave the players the opportunity to express themselves even as he made a passionate appeal to governments at all levels and corporate Nigeria to help the Federation in developing the game in all the six geographical zones of the country.
Vice President of the Federation, Joshua Dauda Bongun expressed happiness that the championship came at the right time when they’re preparing for the Para Games in Ghana slated for September this year and the Amputee Nations Cup coming up later in the year in Egypt.
At the end of the championship, Yisa Yusuf of North West won the Most Valuable player award as well as the highest goal scorer with 4 goals while Yemi Ogidan Olayemi, the North Central goalkeeper won the best goalkeeper of the tournament just as the Munkwoba Goman who handled the North Central team won the coach of the competition.
There was also an exhibition game by the women amputee team. Teams from all the six geopolitical zones of the country participated in the 4-day championship.