NPA Beats Navy To Clinch 2022 Edition of Maritime Cup Football Competition

By The Evangelist
October 30, 2022

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) football team on Friday defeated its Nigerian Navy counterparts by a lone goal to emerge the winner of the 2022 edition of the Ships and Ports Maritime Cup Competition.
In the keenly contested final, Shedrach Charles’s strike in the 10th minute of the match is all that the NPA team also known as the Koko Marines needed to emerge champions.
The third place match was won by the defending champions ENL Consortium who beat Josepdam Port Services by three goals to one.

Apart from the Cup, Prizes were also given to the Most Valuable Player, Augustine Chibuzor of the Nigerian Navy, Best Goalkeeper went to Ayetoba Iseoluwa slso of the Naval team who conceded only two goals in five matches, the Fair Play team to Josepdam Port and best team of the tournament to the third place winner ENL Consortium.
Reacting to the NPA victory, Mr Mohammed Bello-Koko, Managing Director of NPA said that he was excited with the outcome of the match.
Bello-Koko represented by Dr Chinwe Nwokolo, the General Manager, Medical Services, NPA, said that the boys were really good and that was why they came out tops.
“If they did not win, I would have been in shock.
“I urge the organisers to keep it up, they should not keep a long time before they have such competition so that these boys can grow.
“In a field of play, they will lose all their skills so these young ones should be encouraged,”.
Also commenting,
Dr Bolaji Akinola, the Chief Executive Officer, Ships and Ports, noted that even with the two years break, the tournament turned out very exciting.
He said a total of N2 million would be won in prizes by the winning teams and players, winner of the trophy would smile home with N1million while the silver and bronze medal winners would get N500,000 and N300,000 respectively.
He said the Most Valuable Player, Augustine Chibuzor and the Best Goalkeeper, Ayetoba Iseoluwa – both of the Nigerian Navy, as well as Josepdam Port Services, which won the Fair Play award would also get cash prizes.
“This is a tournament that binds industry stakeholders together, we saw the spirit of comradeship, the joyful atmosphere, the friendship and the spirit of competition.
“It is a tournament that has come to stay. We are having young people in the maritime industry and we need to keep them positively engaged through sports.
“Officiating was top-notch, the officials are members of the Lagos State Referee Council, the best we can get. They are well trained, licensed and certified by FIFA, they are the same that officiate Nigerian professional league matches .
“People are talking about introducing Virtual Assistant Referee (VAR) , it is a function of resources that we have at hand, we will continue to see what we can do in that regards,” he said.
This is the second time the NPA team has lifted the Maritime Cup. The first time was in 2018.
The competition was created by Ships & Ports in 2009 to encourage recreation and camaraderie among employees of government agencies, private sector operators, and regulators in the maritime industry.
Past winners of the Maritime Cup since inception are the Nigerian Navy (2009), Micura Stevedoring Services (2010), Nigeria Customs Service (2011, 2012, 2013, 2016, and 2017), National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (2014).
Others are Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (2015), Nigerian Ports Authority (2018) and ENL Consortium Nigeria Ltd (2019).