CBN Cup 2024: Grumblings Behind Graphics

Bright-eyed freshers, most of whom are new to the university environment, are always eager to socialize and participate in activities upon getting into the university, and aside from their halls of residences and lecture theatres, there is no better place to fulfil this with fellow freshmen — whether those in your department or those in other departments — other than the sports arena, be it as supporters or as players who compete for glory. The CBN Cup is one of the only tournaments played at the University of Ibadan that caters exclusively to 100-level students, particularly students who take freshman courses in the popular CBN LT. A total of twenty-one departments registered this session to play against each other in the group stages before moving on to the knockouts, and then the eventual champions will be crowned. This year’s tournament has been noticeably different from earlier editions as a lot of issues have arisen.

Usually, elections are held in the first semester to choose notable students among the freshers to organize the activities common to the number of students that identify with the lecture theatre. This was done sometime in the middle of last year. Certain students were elected to fill various positions, including that of the sports director. It is expected that a student contesting for any of these offices present plans, but unfortunately, this wasn’t a requirement. Akanni Olatunji Taofeek from Archaeology and Anthropology, who emerged as the sports director, had been found guilty by many of organising an easily forgettable tournament. However, according to reports, he was ill for a considerable period, meaning the buck stops at the rest of the organising committee’s feet. A major theme of this year’s tournament is disorganisation, which has affected many teams. Each department paid a heavy sum of 17,000 Naira for the male teams and 7,000 Naira for the female team registration. Considering how much that is, particularly relative to bigger competitions like the SEALS Cup, the fees should have at least guaranteed proper organisation at the very minimum; sadly, this wasn’t the case.

Speaking with the UIMSA Press, Bakare Emmanuel from Zoology said, “The competition wasn’t organized well. It’s very time-consuming. Just imagine, the committee releases fixtures hours before the match. This is very bad. How am I going to gather twelve players within that short period of time? The CBN sports director has been inactive throughout the tournament, which is not meant to be; he doesn’t even know what is going on. The ball we are using for matches is very bad despite the huge amount of money we paid. Imagine a goalkeeper playing a match with native! Where’s that done?!”. As the sports director in charge of the competition, it is beyond ridiculous to be inactive during the tournament. Jesujoba Isreal from Pharmacy said, “Matches were fixed when we had practicals, which really affected my players. There were issues with the time scheduling and time given for preparation.” Most times, these teams would get to SUB on sunny afternoons only to discover too late that other teams were making use of the field, despite leaving much behind for the game. Other times, schedules weren’t duly communicated to players, resulting in unnecessary walkovers. This has caused a competition that was supposed to last a few weeks to last longer than necessary, even spilling into 2025.

David from Vet. Medicine said, “This has to be the worst organized tournament I’ve ever come across, both in terms of planning and execution. The competition has been dragged out longer than necessary, with plans for it stemming as far back as August; it finally started in November, and after a series of postponements and delays, it has dragged on late into January.” On the use of the SUB pitch, he said, “We were scheduled to play a match against Electrical Electronics Engineering by 11 am only to be left waiting till 3 pm before we finally played! This is excluding the fact that we were only informed of the match fixture 13 hours beforehand. Necessities like ensuring matches start on time, providing adequate facilities, and having proper officials in place seemed like an afterthought rather than a priority.” This must have been demoralizing for students who would have arrived at the pitch with high morale only to wait for hours for their pre-scheduled match to finally hold.

Still on impromptu fixtures, Odelade Abdullahi, a Dentistry student said, “Impromptu fixtures were dropped on us during even test periods when most of our focus was directed to our books. Postponement of our matches was a common thing. They aren’t organized at all. Sometimes, proof was needed to show they had booked the field, but the organizers held the only proof, which was difficult to get when necessary. A lot of departments paid heavily to register, so why not just book other fields in school to make the competition go faster?” Speaking with some other freshmen revealed the fact that many teams had thoughts of pulling out more than once due to the frustration from the whole process. A common thought in most minds was that if the competition was better organized and the fixtures well placed, they would have had time to work on themselves and train more, giving their best to the tournament.

With the poor organisation so far from the people in charge, one would have wondered if they had no seniors to put them through. For first-year medical student Osunwole Oluwatobiloba, “The committee didn’t act like they had asked their successful predecessors for advice on how to go about it.” He also attested to the fact that “time for fixtures always dropped hours to the match itself, causing captains to start looking for their players or begging them to play, which could have been easily avoided if they had been told the time of the fixtures early enough.” It’s one thing to disregard students’ academic schedules, it’s another thing to threaten walkovers when you have fallen short of your duty to properly organise a competition. “Making decisions where they didn’t care about the welfare of the teams was commonplace; most times they kept going back and forth between canceling matches and fixing them at an unsuitable time for both sides and even threatening walkovers if they failed to comply. They also never communicated properly with the teams beforehand, leaving them unsure of when they had to play,” he added.

This disorganization also extended to the female category of the competition, which was contested by only three teams. A player from the Faculty of Agriculture joined the Faculty of Science team to play against the MBBS 100-level Femini, which, according to the rules, wasn’t supposed to be so. Something similar happened earlier in the male category with the Dentistry department. It took deliberation between team captains and the Sports Director to salvage the situation, which ended in fines and a deduction of points.

This is not to say that some teams weren’t at fault. There were cases where players wore inappropriate wears to play on the field or when teams brought in players alien to the department to fill in for them. Proper officiating and regulation of the tournament to ensure strict adherence to rules could have prevented these, but most times the members of the planning committee have a delayed reaction to situations, most likely because they usually weren’t present to watch what was going on during the matches.

Presently, the round of 16 draws slowly to a close, inching us further to the quarterfinals. Despite all the challenges faced in the earlier rounds of the competition, much could still be done to salvage it. The organizers must establish a proper timeline, communicate effectively with the teams, and ensure that logistics are handled professionally. New equipment must be bought to replace the worn-out ones. Players should not be treated as afterthoughts in planning and execution. This would make the latter stages of this session’s CBN Cup much better than the terrible beginning.

Wisdom Ladapo.