The annual sports competition organised by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) began yesterday at FAAN Secondary School.
The managing director and chief executive of the Authority, Mrs Olubunmi Kuku, represented by the director of airport operations, Capt Abudullahi Mahmood, declared the event open. Mahmood who led the other management staff, including the director of human resources and administration, Dr. Lukman Eniola, to perform the ceremonial kick off, sued for fair play.
The competition opened with a novelty match by the management staff, with male and female players drawn from the different directorates of FAAN and identified as Team Blue and Team Yellow.
The game ended 1-1 at half time. In the second half, Team Blue showed more determination which paid off when it scored a second goal through a free kick taken by Eniola to end the match at 2-1.
FAAN said the novelty match was meant to boost morale, improve team cohesion and foster a sense of community for the overall goal of improved productivity.
The opening ceremony also featured an inter-directorate cycling, with both male and female cyclists from all the directorates participating.
In the major match of the day, FAAN’s directorate of aviation security services (DASS) squared up against the directorate of engineering services.
At regulation time, DES defeated the defending champions, DASS, by a lone goal.
Speaking in an interview after the game, Eniola said the completion had begun on a “good note” adding that the objective of bringing the staff together was achieved.
He urged the participating teams to make fair play their guiding rule while playing with the desire to win.
At the end of the competition, he said “we should be able to select a very good team for the civil service games as well as raise a formidable team for FAAN to match the other agencies in football competition.”
Recall that the DASS had in the 2024 edition of the championship defeated the managing director/ directorate of legal services (MD/DLS) by five goals to four in penalty shootout. The match had ended 2-2 at regulation time.
The directorate of airport operations (DAO) squared up with the DES for the third place in which DAO won with six goals to five in penalty shootout. The full-time ended 1-1.
