By: Lawal Damilare 

The 200-level Survival Cup kicked off on Wednesday 5th of April. The competition will see teams across various faculties compete to emerge Champions. In this session, 22 teams entered the competition across the Faculty of Education, Law, Agriculture, Economics, Social Sciences,  Arts, and School of Medicine. Some teams are drawn from one department, while other teams are made up of two departments. A home-and-away system was introduced to determine the group stage and advancement to the next round.

Economics/Nursing squared off against Adult Education in the opening game. The quality of football left much to be wanted, with stray passes flying around and inaccurate shots rattling the SUB pitch barrier rather than the goalposts. The game ended 1-0 in favour of Adult Education, with Samuel scoring the only goal that made the difference. CLA/LINGUISTICS played MBBS in the second game, and it was a much better spectacle than what was witnessed in the earlier fixture. There were sparks of brilliance, great touches, and of course goals.

Promise opened the scoring for MBBS in the first half, but they were pegged back by a strike from Enito which gave CLA/Linguistics gave the equalizer. MBBS scored again via a striker from team captain Dave. It turned out to be the match-winner as the boys from the School of Medicine ran out with the 2-1 victory. On day two, Animal Science and Physics provided us with an interesting tie. The lads from the Faculty of Agriculture looked like the better side in the afternoon. They created better chances and looked deadly on the break. Two goals from starman Robinson sealed the 2-0 victory for Animal Science.

Other interesting results were the merged team of Microbiology/Physiology 1-1 Biochemistry/Human Nutrition.

WPE vs KHE/STE ended in a deadlock, with both teams sharing the spoils 0-0. Meanwhile, in the biggest result so far, IPE demolished Chemistry 5-0. A double brace from Kenneth and Ephraim and a single goal from Pamilerin sealed the victory for the lads from the Faculty of Science. On Friday, Pharmacy/VET defeated EME/G&C 2-0, while Sociology beat ASE 1-1. Mathematics/Stats lost 2-1 to CVE/AAE, while POS defeated RNR 1-0

                        Of  Glitches

As earlier stated, the competition has a total of 22 teams. 11 of the teams merged to play, while another 11 teams entered the competition as individual departments. 15,000 Naira was required by merged teams to enter the competition while a total of 12,000 Naira was paid by single teams. 

Applying simple mathematics, the merged teams would have had a total entry fee of #165,000 Naira, and the remaining single teams would have paid a total of #132,000 Naira. This means that the total money received for registration is #297,000 naira, not including Grants and external support.

Why all of these Calculations? 

The cash price for the first position as stated by the organizers is #60,000 Naira with medals, the second-best team will take home #35,000 Naira with medals while the third-place team gets only Medals. This leaves the organizers with at least #202,000 naira to buy balls, pay referees, and do other activities.

Still, there are so many questions that need to be answered by the committee that put together the competitions. For example, there was no water or glucose for the players. We asked the organizers why this is, and they said that they already agreed on it before the competition started. Whilst it may be easy to criticize the organizers, the team representatives have to take a huge chunk of the blame because it is illogical to pay for a competition, and not request water. A bag of water costs #250 naira. At least, each team deserves two bags per game because of the harsh weather. Besides, most of the teams will only play two games.

Also, First aid has been questionable, and players that have sustained injuries have not been catered for properly. Balls were limited and despite funding, the competition provided one ball and at best provided a second ball until later, slowing play at times.

Asides from these issues, there have been complaints about the timing of the organizers. Most of the games have started late, and some have been postponed. Infact, there was the case of a game that was reduced to 20 minutes per half because of the lack of time.

Nonetheless, the refereeing has been great. School team coach Eduviere Allen has done a good job handling the whistle. He has put earlier concerns to rest. Albeit, the linesman could do with a little improvement.