Bickering between the Oyo State Commissioner for Sports and Youths Development, Dapo Lam-Adesina, and the hierarchy of the Oyo State Football Association took a dirty dimension yesterday when the Commissioner and state FA boss Leye Adepoju engaged in a war of words which almost marred the FA Cup final between perennial rivals Shooting Stars Sports Club of Ibadan and Crown FC of Ogbomoso.
It took the intervention of some top government functionaries and club Chairmen before the youthful Oyo Sports Commissioner who had ordered the Lekan Salami Sports Complex, Adamasingba, Ibadan the venue for the State FA final shut to bar the state FA the organizer of the tourney from using it before he changed his mind.
The development which made the match to commence much later than scheduled with all gates thrown open on the order of the Commissioner as against the plan of the FA who had advertised gate-fees for the different categories of the stands.
Earlier before the match a peace meeting was convened, which had in attendance the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) Alhaji Akin Olajide, Chairman Crown FC, Alhaji Noah Bello, Elder Ogundiran Dijo and some other personalities where the commissioner and the NFF Executive member engaged themselves in words of words using abusive languages on each other.
Investigations revealed that the cold war between the two stated precisely a year ago during the last year’s FA Cup final, when the organisers, the Oyo FA called the Deputy Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Hon. Babatunde Olaniyan to take the kick-off without the knowledge of the Commissioner, the development that seemed not pleasing to the Commissioner who was also at the stadium.
“Since then the Commissioner had been showing apathy to all our programmes. We have written several letters to him seeking his assistance in developing the game in the state but, he always turned it into the bin. Twice we have written to him concerning this final, but what he was claiming today was that he was not duly briefed about the match,” said a member of the Oyo FA who craved for anonymity.
In the match proper 3SC defeated Crown FC of Ogbomoso by a lone goal scored Tony Ejomaregwe in the first half to emerge the state champion for the 2013 season.
