Pepsi Rewards Sand Eagles with Cash Prize at 2014 COPA Lagos

The Super Sand Eagles of Nigeria may not have won the keenly contested 2014 COPA Lagos tournament but they are still smiling to the bank courtesy of Pepsi, the leading soft drink brand in Nigeria. The team ended the tournament on a high after defeating Senegal 5 – 4 to emerge as runner up after suffering the same margin defeat in the hands of Cote ‘D’ Iviore, the eventual winner.

Already looking sad for coming second, the Super Sand Eagles excitement was revived as the Managing Director of Seven Up Bottling Company, Mr. Sunil Sawhney, handed the team’s captain, Isiaka Olawale a whooping cheque of 7,500 Dollars.

The Sand Eagles have always won the COPA Lagos since its inception four years ago and it was becoming a tradition that the players and fans expected to continue; but the resilient Cote ‘D’ Iviore team proved too good and deservedly broke the Eagles train of victories.

Pepsi Football Academy this year participated in the tournament by playing against FC Barcelona Beach Team. The academy lost 7 - 4 because they lacked experience as they only started playing beach soccer about a month ago. 

Head of Marketing, SBC, Norden Thurston said after the match: “ I am amazed that events like this can happen in Nigeria and I think it’s just gone from strength to strength. COPA Lagos is one of the biggest beach soccer tournaments in the world and when Pepsi got involved, it was to add more value. Pepsi Football Academy playing against a team as big as FC Barcelona is a great opportunity for the lads to gain more exposure and belief. PFA is the leading football academy in Africa and the likes of Mikel Obi, Osazie etc started here.

Today the academy played with one of the biggest teams in the world and I think it’s a fantastic achievement not just playing against FC Barcelona but also scoring against them. When the score was 6-4 we had opportunity to make it 6-5, I said to myself, oh my God I think we can win this but we lost 7-4 to a more mature team not just in age but exposure to the game, as PFA only started playing beach soccer barely a month ago. It’s an amazing achievement and Pepsi is very proud of the academy.

While Director of Pepsi Football Academy, Chief Laloko Kashimawo said: “We have many opportunities to level up but it’s just because our boys were inexperienced. Playing Grass football is different from beach football. If you have the chance here and you don’t take it, you find yourself to blame. We had more chances than the Barcelona team had but we didn’t take them. We had every opportunity to win but we thank God we gave a respectable performance. 

For beach football in Nigeria, the development has not been that great but now that Pepsi is getting more involved, we will definitely join the Lagos State Football Association. They are doing a wonderful job with the Eko Beach Soccer program. The league has started with all the clubs in Lagos and we are part of it. We at PFA are trying to support what they are doing and get more teams to be interested.  

Other result from the tournament: Nigeria defeated Ghana 7 – 5, Senegal lost to Cote ‘D’ Iviore by 2 to 6, Enyimba piped Stationery Stores 1 – 0, Barcelona thrashed Stationery Stores 6 – 4 and Nigeria lost narrowly to Cote ‘D’ Iviore 4 – 5.