With the Nigeria Football Federation having approved the return of the Beach Soccer National Team, Supersand Eagles, to international competition, organizers of this year’s Nigeria Beach Soccer League put up a great show at the Super 4 National Finals held over three days in Kaduna, ending on Saturday.
The finals at the Murtala Muhammed Square in Northern Nigeria’s administrative capital saw the Kebbi Beach Soccer Club underscoring their dominance of the domestic game by winning their third title of the three-year-old event.
Cup holders as well as winners of the inaugural finals in 2021, they lost 2-3 after penalties to Kada Stars of Kaduna but that didn’t stop them from picking their third title and pocketing the N600,000 winners’ prize. Their six points in the finals lifted them above Anambra Warriors, who finished in second place and went home with N400,000, and third-placed Kebbi United, who pocketed N300,000. Kada Stars finished fourth and earned N200,000.
Two-time participants at the Beach Soccer Worldwide Winners Cup, Kebbi BSC also produced the tournament’s MVP in Hassan Abdullahi. Kebbi United’s Sadiq Umar emerged highest goalscorer with 17 goals, with the club’s Umar Aliyu selected the Rising Star of the competition and Festus Bashorun of Anambra Warriors named the best goalkeeper. Kada Stars won the Fair Play trophy.
The final matches were attended by eminent personalities in the beach soccer community, including the Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Kaduna State Professor Benjamin Kumai Gugong; Chairman of NFF Futsal and Beach Soccer Committee, Hon. Nse Essien; Vice Chairman, Alhaji Yusuf Ahmed Fresh; Chairman of NFF Technical and Development Committee, Alhaji Sharif Rabiu Inuwa; Engineer Musa Nimrod, President of Nigeria Volleyball Federation and Chairman, Kaduna Beach Soccer Association; Chairman of Kaduna State Football Association, Mallam Faisal Abdullahi; Dr. Umar Mohammed; Mr. Abubakar Barde (Committee Secretary) and; a couple of NFF directors.
The NFF delegation had warm words for the organizing team led by President of African Beach Soccer Association, Mahmoud Hadejia, who along his team has worked very hard to put the game of beach soccer back on the front burner after the NFF withdrew the Supersand Eagles from the international sphere, following scandalous results at the 2019 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup finals in Paraguay.
The attention of the beach soccer community now shifts to the Supersand Eagles’ preparations for the 2024 Beach Soccer Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Mauritania, with the first leg in Nouakchott on 20th July and the return leg in Nigeria a week later.
