Beach Soccer Super 4 Kebbi Fishers emerge champions

Beach Soccer Super 4
Kebbi Fishers emerge champions

By Vincent Akinbami

Kebbi Beach Soccer team emerged winners of the 4th edition of the Nigeria Beach Soccer League Super 4 despite loosing 2-3 to their Kaduna counter part in the second match of the final day .

The last set of round robin matches played at the Murtala Muhammed Square in Kaduna saw the Kebbi Fishers taking it lightly in the last match of the day after outclassing the second Kebbi Beach soccer team and Anambra BSC in their first and second match 6-2 and 5-0 respectively thus winning their third title of the three-year-old event.

With the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) having approved the return of the Beach Soccer National Team, Supersand Eagles, to international competition, organisers of this year’s Nigeria Beach Soccer League put up a great show at the Super 4 Finals held over three days in Kaduna, ending on Saturday.

Kebbi Fishers, the cup holders as well as winners of the inaugural finals in 2021, pocket 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 while third-placed Kebbi United got N300,000 as third place finisher and Kada Stars, which finished fourth 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 7 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), the president of Sport Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), Benjamin Isaiah and a couple of NFF directors.

The president of the Beach soccer board, Alhaji Mahmoud Hadejia promised more innovation in the future to make it much better and attract more youth into the sport so as to make Nigeria a force in the world of beach soccer.

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 July 20 and the return leg in Nigeria a week later.