By: Adekunle Oni-Daniel 

The University of Ibadan Students’ Union Sports Council held a press conference on Monday, May 5, 2025.

The press briefing, which held at the SRC Chamber, addressed plans for the upcoming 2025 SEALS Cup tournament.

According to Daniel Olowu, the Chairman of the tournament, the new edition of the SEALS Cup competition will feature both male and female categories.

“There will be two categories this year. The male and the female categories. The male category will have 32 teams that will compete from the group stage to the knockout stage, and then the final stage. The female category on the other hand will have 16 teams that will face off from the group stage to the knockout, and final stage,” Daniel Olowu explained.

Mr. Daniel mentioned that while each male team will register with 18 players and 2 coaches, the female teams will consist of 10 players with a coach each.

The duration for the matches in the male category was sanctioned to be 60 minutes, while 30 minutes were allocated for that of the female category. Daniel Olowu further unveiled the new policy for the 2025 SEALS Cup tournament.

“For players that have talent but they don’t have a football oriented department, we are giving the opportunity for the registered teams to sign them,” Daniel said.

“A team can purchase a player as long as the player is an undergraduate and his/her department does not register for the 2025 SEALS Cup,” Daniel added.

According to Daniel, each football match will have a Sports Commissioner that will be responsible for the record-keeping of each game.

The Students’ Union Sports Secretary, Victor Kolawole, unveiled the introduction of Esports as an initiative for the 2025 SEALS Cup.

“We are putting work in place to partner with an esports company to introduce some esports games to the 2025 SEALS Cup. However, no extra fees will be charged for these esports and there will also be no limit to the number of participants to register for these esports games” Kolawole clarified.

At the briefing, it was confirmed that Esports would include FIFA Mobile, Call of Duty Mobile, and online chess.

“There is no category for the FIFA Mobile and Call of Duty Mobile, but the online chess game will be in the male and female categories. We have also received recommendations to introduce E-Football and we are working on it also. More information about E-Football will be out on or before May 18,” Victor added.

The Chairman of the 2025 SEALS Cup Disciplinary Committee, Faruq, explained that the tournament is also open to both DLC and post graduate students.

Daniel Olowu clarified that SEALS Cup committee would not be responsible for providing first aid facilities to the departments involved in the tournament.

“Please, let all departments come with their health team for first aid on the field. There will be no provision of first aid from the SEALS Cup Committee”. Daniel informed the Departmental Sports Secretaries.

When asked about the grand prize for the SEALS Cup 2025 tournament, Daniel Olowu, the Chairman of the SEALS Cup tournament noted, “We are planning to go beyond the usual ₦100,000, looking for sponsors and so on to go beyond that. But details on the prize will be released later. Just know that we cannot go less than the ₦100,000 prize tag.”

The 2025 SEALS Cup tournament will commence on May 21, 2025.