Abimbola Football Club has been crowned the champion of the maiden edition of Hassan Olawale Giwa (HOG) Football Competition, defeating Monaco FC via penalties.
The final match, which was held at Community Grammar School, Lagun, witnessed the donor of the trophy, Arc Hassan Giwa splashing cash gift of N10, 000 each to outstanding player, keeper, youngest player, coach, highest goal scorer and most discipline team of the tournament.
While the Royal Father of the Day, Ola of Lagun, Oba Lekan Bello, on behalf of the Foundation presented a giant trophy and cash gift of N150, 000 to the winner, Abimbola FC, an APC chieftain in Lagelu Local Government, Chief Olukunle Sanda presented a trophy and cash gift of N100, 000 to the first runner up, Monaco FC.
Abimbola FC won the match by four goals to three through penalty shoot-out after the match ended one goal apiece after the regulation time.
Apatere United, which emerged second runner up after defeating Dynamics FC, received a sum of N50, 000 as third place prize.
While presenting his speech, donor of the trophy for the competition and Founder, HOG Foundation, Arc Hassan Giwa, disclosed that the purpose of the competition is to assist the promising talents to develop and make their career through sports.
He maintained that his foundation has been assisting the people through various programmes cut across health, education and vocational training, emphasizing that he deliberately chose sports to engage more youths.
According to the estate developer, “the tournament is primarily aimed to engage our youths, to discover their talent and focusing on how to nurture them to the prominence.
“HOG Foundation has been reaching out to the people, touches lives and giving support to the needy in the areas of education, health and empowerment for the past 16 years. We realized that it is time to invest in the area of sports, because it is another avenue for youths both male and female to develop themselves and earn the living.
“We realized that increase in the rate of hooliganism, gangsterism and every other social vice is as a result of high rate of unemployment in the country and failure to tap and boost the fading away talents.
“An adage says, “an idle hand is the devil’s workshop”, and to get our society rid of all these security challenges we are facing, we must support our youths, share their dreams, engage them in their choices of career, teach them how to fish, rather than giving them fish every time.
“HOG Foundation sees sport as one of the positive ways to liberate the youth, showcase their talent, exposed them to prominent figures in the area of sports who can assist them to reach the peak of their careers. It is my candid belief that if society, government, and well-to-do individuals are ready to give necessary support to these promising talents, they can do better for themselves, their families and even society at large,” Giwa said.
The APC chieftain assured the people of Lagelu/Akinyele federal constituency of his continuous support to the children’s education, the widows and the aged people, as well as artisan.
“At HOG Foundation, we will not relent on our oars as we have been doing for the past 16 years. We will continue to support our children’s education, championing the course of quality healthcare delivery of our children, widows and aged mothers and fathers, supporting our old ones who are traders through our various business support programmes. We will also not deviate from our ideology of empowering the artisan and farmers in our little way,” Hassan Giwa added.
Some of the dignitaries that graced the occasion include Chief Olukunle Sanda, Hon. Remi Adebayo, Hon. Wasiu Akinmoyede, Hon. Adebayo Sikiru (Kajue) and Hon. Abidemi Olagoke (Atorise).
Others are APC Chairman, Lagelu Local Government, Alhaji Kehide Adeleke, Hon. Solagbade Salahu, Chief Saka Rasheed and Hon Akeem Arowomole, who is the Chairman, HOG Committee.
