Between Glo-CAF Awards and FIFA Best Awards

Call it a season of football awards.  One in Africa and for Africans; and one in Zurich for the global football community.  The African award, aptly tagged Glo-CAF Awards, recognised the outstanding football men and women within the 2016 football season, just like the FIFA awards, called the FIFA Best Awards, extended its recognition to those considered the best football players and administrators in the world within the same period.  And for the football buffs all over the world, the excitement has been real.  From the local and international  television, radio, press, and online platforms, the stories of these two great awards permeated the air with so much discussions on the winners, near winners and ultimate losers.
 
The maiden FIFA The Best Awards took place on Monday, January 9, 2017, just four days after the 2016 Glo-CAF Awards. The Glo-CAF Awards called “the Oscars of African football” was held at the iconic International Conference Centre, Abuja, unlike the FIFA Awards which was organised inside a studio at the Zurich Technology and Production Centre in Switzerland. Both awards were conceptualised as reward systems for personalities who have displayed outstanding dexterity and grit in the game of soccer. The two awards attract attention from across the globe owing to the fact that soccer has for long been the new “opium of the people’’, a unifying factor for all races and inclinations. Winners at the FIFA Best awards got the new platinum coated trophy that has a shape which resembles the highly coveted FIFA world cup trophy while Glo Caf awardees went home with premium crystal trophies and certificates.
For a cursory watcher who may wish to draw parallels between the two world-class events, the Glo-CAF awards was a spectacle in words and deed, and the 2016 Awards was the Silver Jubilee edition. The sponsor of the Awards, Globacom, palpably displayed its experience in event organisation at the highly choreographed event which unraveled with clock work precision. Apart from the classy venue, the ambience of the hall was exquisite and relaxing. The stage, designed with football montage, was dazzling and added more colour to the grandeur of the occasion.
Expectedly, both events deployed the use of an admixture of sports, fashion, music and glamour to entertain the audience. Whilst only two musical groups performed at the FIFA Awards, over ten top musical performers drawn from across the African continent serenaded guests at the Abuja event. The musical performances were fitting interludes to the presentation of the awards and contributed in heightening the excitement and suspense as the comperes prepared to announce the winners of the respective awards. This is not out of place as we are all aware of the critical role which music plays in football where supporters sing to ginger footballers to give their best on the field of play.  Besides, in Africa, it is difficult to separate music from the way of life. Guests, including CAF officials thoroughly enjoyed the evening of fun and music and commended Globacom for the rich repertoire of top notch African music. The duo of Nollywood icon, Richard Mofe Damijo (RMD) and dazzling global presenter  Mimi Fawaz thrilled guests at the Glo Caf awards with their fashion blazing attires, wisecracks and on-point deliveries.
It is also remarkable that FIFA sponsors were not given visibility at The Best Awards.  But that was not so in the Abuja event as the sole sponsor of the Glo-CAF Awards, Globacom, got maximum mileage from the event with above par top-of-mind awareness which greatly enhanced the company’s brand equity.  The truth is that the company’s commercials, which are rich in creativity and delivery, contributed to creating excitement in the hall.  They hit the screens with full power of conviction that any one yet to use Glo products and services would have a second thought.   
Both events started with the green carpet as the prelude to the events. Additionally, guests at the Glo-CAF Awards were treated to mouth-watering delicacies at the cocktail which took place at the foyer to the venue,  in addition to the quaint sumptuous dinner served later.  Of course, it was not unexpected that the FIFA awards would entertain guests prior to or post the awards ceremony. 
Finally, the staging of the awards very early in the year signposts the premium importance attached to the awards by both FIFA and CAF. From all intents and purposes, it is a win-win situation for past, present and future footballers the world over, who are the prime beneficiaries of these highly valued diadems.