IN appreciation of their outstanding performance in the country’s oldest football tournament – Federation Cup, Lagos State Government will honour some legends that had graced the yearly competition during the final of this year’s championship holding at the Teslim Balogun Stadium on Sunday August 26.

According to the secretary of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the final, Oluyomi Oluwasanmi, 14 legends have been pencilled down for honours this year as the event will be a yearly event put together by the state government.

“The essence of this honour is to appreciate the outstanding performance of some players that had featured in the Federation Cup. There will be posthumous honours for those of them that had died while those alive will also be remembered. It is going to be an annual event that some of the players that have distinguished themselves since the inception of the championship in Nigeria.

"We are doing this to motivate the present crop of players that their efforts in the competition will not go unnoticed even after they had retired,” she said.

She added that new players would be honoured annually in Lagos during the final of the championship.

“For every year, new former players that had taken part in the Federation Cup will be honoured every year during the final of the tournament holding in Lagos,” she explained.

For this year, the late duo of Teslim ‘Thunder’ Balogun and Haruna Ilerika will be given posthumous awards for their contribution to the championship.

The late Thunder Balogun won the Federation Cup title seven titles and coached the national team to the 1968 Olympic Games.

Ilerika, a former vice-chairman of the Lagos State Football Association featured for the prestigious Stationery Stores of Lagos in the championship.

Other players expected to be honoured this year include, Victor Oduah, Ismaila Mabo, Muyiwa Oshode, Christian Chukwu, Segun Odegbami, Sani Mohammed,

Moses Kpakor, Alabi Aisien, Amodu Shuaibu, Peter Rufai and veteran sports analyst, Fabio Lanipekun.

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