By: Rahman Yusuf

It is the second semester at the prestigious University of Ibadan. The freshmen are now properly welcomed to the football adventures on the infamous SUB pitch as 100-level male teams of various departments compete for the crown at the ongoing CBN Cup tournament.

The CBN Cup is an annual football tournament held every second semester exclusively for the freshmen of every department taking lectures at the monumental CBN lecture theatre. However, we did not witness any pulsating matches last session since a proper planning committee could not be set up. Thus, the title remains with the 300-level students of the Department of Veterinary Medicine who won it during the 2020/2021 academic session after whistling past Wood Products Engineering freshmen in the final.

So far, this year’s CBN Cup has been exhilarating with a total of 16 participating departments across the faculties of technology, science, and medicine. The 16 departments were distributed evenly across 4 groups from which the top two teams will qualify for the quarter-finals. There will be a total of 32 matches, and the ultimate champion will claim the cash prize of #150 000.

So Far, So Good 

Round 2 of the competition has just been completed with one match left for each participating team to play in the group stage. As expected, some teams have already booked their tickets for the quarter-finals while some are facing an imminent exit from the tournament. The remaining teams will get a final shot at qualification during Round 3 scheduled for the next weekend.

In group A, the next round will prove to be the difference as the current leader, MBBS, takes on the struggling Industrial and Production Engineering to secure their spot in the quarter-finals while Physics and Physiology battle it out for survival. In Group B, Architecture will be counting on the in-form and current leader, Chemistry, to defeat Computer Science while they look to put an end to the underperforming Veterinary Medicine title defence.

It appears too easy for the WPE freshmen in Group B who have already secured a place in the quarter-finals leaving Agricultural Engineering and Pharmacy to fight for the remaining spot while Electrical & Electronics Engineering face an imminent exit. Finally, Group D will be the centre of attention after Petroleum Engineering Vs. Biochemistry later today and will look to cause an upset against Geology. In the same vein, Biochemistry will look to pile up on Mathematics in the final match of the group stage although their exit looks certain.

Final Thoughts

It is quite remarkable that the current freshmen were not swayed by the failure of their immediate predecessor and were able to organize the CBN Cup this semester. The publicity for the tournament was also rich enough to attract interests from non-participating departments and levels. No doubt, the officiating has also been fair and improved from what have been seen in the past.

Yet, there are still some areas the planning committee lags. The match schedule seems to have been flawed with complaints that fixtures are not announced early enough initially and coupled with threats of awarding walkovers if any of the teams do not show up. Nevertheless, it appears that the issue has been rectified, and one can anticipate a rollercoaster ride until the conclusion of the tournament.