●Cash prize increase
Pius Ayinor
June 12 is a national holiday and the organisers of the Victor Ikpeba Football Challenge are serving the final match of the 2025 edition as the entertainment deal for the day. This is so special for those in Lagos especially the Surulere axis where the semi-finals and final matches are slated to hold this afternoon.
June 12 is also the birth date of the former Super Eagles striker, Ikpeba who has provided this competition to the community for the past four years. This Thursday’s event is the fifth in the series and the kickoff is at 2pm.
The other big boost for the day goes to the teams as the prize money got increased this week. The winners of the 5-A-Side competition will take home N300,000 as against the N250,000 on the table last year. The second best team will take home N150,000 and then N100,000 and N75,000 for the third and fourth team.
This 2025 edition is also remarkable as it is being held in honour of late Dapo Sotuminu, who served as the director and coordinator of the competition for the first edition four years ago until last year. The journalist was also the former CDA chairman of the community.
The venue remains the Obele Odan Community Centre, Fujah Street, Surulere, Lagos where the preliminary rounds kicked-off since on the 31st of May.
For the fans, be certain to see some of your favourite television celebrities on parade today at the venue and fully backed by a crowd of supporters of the event from Bet9ja Foundation who are now partners of the competition.
“Thank you Bet9ja for your laudable events with communities in different parts of the country,” the former AS Monaco of France star said on Wednesday as he and the Local Organising Committee members helped to fix things at the venue.
Gantos FC are the defending champions of this programme put together by the former African Footballer of the Year.
Extrasportnigeria 
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