The opening game of the Seals Cup ’26 will see the two-time champions square off against the Department of Veterinary Medicine, at the Old Football Pitch, SUB come Friday, April 17, 2026.
The defending champions, gunning for a third, have been drawn in Group A against Vet Medicine, Arabic and Islamic Studies, and Environmental Health Sciences. Recall that, prior to the duck being broken by MBBS last time out, in the last editions, every previous champion was subjected to what was famously dubbed the “Champions group stage curse”, with past champions Geography (2022) and Philosophy (2023) failing to make it out of the group stages in 2023 and 2024, respectively. Many had expected the “curse” to indeed hold true once more, but in the end nobody could stop the UIMSA boys on their way to a second successive triumph. Interestingly enough, since their debut in 2023, MBBS have only dropped 2 points in the group stage, the 2-2 draw against IPE in last year’s opener. They will no doubt be hoping to get their campaign off to a winning start.
The women’s team on the other hand have been drawn in Group D against the likes of Law, EHS and Archeology & Anthropology. It will take some time before that searing 2024 run will be forgotten by anybody. The Eseosa-led team defied all odds and only narrowly lost the finals to competition favourites ASSE 3-2 on penalties, after a hard-fought goalless draw in regular minutes.
The SEALS Cup tournament is about as big as it gets on the departmental football scale in UI, and it draws in participants from all over the university community. However, the competition, now in its 8th edition, actually had humble and somewhat ironic origins. In 2016, the 100L Sociology football team was barred from taking part in the CBN Cup, a competition which has become like a rite of passage for freshmen, for not taking lectures at the CBN lecture theatre. The team was reportedly feared by the other departments enough that their omission from the tournament actually drew very little objections. And so in 2017, Samuel Adediran, popularly known as Prime, canvassed friends across departments that shared the same predicament: departments from Social Sciences, Education, Arts and Law, pitched his idea to them, and his then-Faculty sports director and so SEAL Cup, as it was first called, was born. SEALS, as it happens, is no arbitrary name, it is an acronym of the founding faculties: Social Sciences, Education, Arts, Law, and then Science, who joined the fold later.
The inaugural edition in 2017 saw 16 departments contest a straight knockout format, with Law claiming the first-ever title in a 1-0 win against Psychology. They did not know it at the time but the seeds for the most watched sports competition on campus had been sown. The second edition expanded just slightly, this time Sociology won the final 3-1 against KHE with goalkeeper Seyi taking the Golden Glove and Eyitayo the MVP award. The prize pool then was ₦40,000 for winners and ₦20,000 for runners-up. Each passing year, the competition continued to get more and more coverage and the 2019 final, which was a rematch of the previous year’s saw KHE claim their first title win with a 1-0 win, the goal coming from a freekick from Julius. The prize money had risen to ₦50,000 and ₦30,000 for winners and runners-up, respectively.
Prime had been organising the competition every year since its inception but with his graduation on the horizon, nobody could quite tell what would happen to the SEALS Cup. It was the love for the beautiful game that would triumph as then UI’SU Sports Secretary, Olawale Babatunde Joshua, stepped in and secured the organising rights from Prime in 2021. That edition also saw the grand prize rise to ₦100,000 and the introduction of the 32-team format, which was in use even till 2025. This year’s edition, the 8th, has seen a shift in that structure. The World Cup Edition has seen the number of participating teams rise to 48.
The women’s category which debuted in 2024, is now set for the third edition. The edition is set to launch the 7-a-side format, as opposed to the staple 5-a-side that we’ve come to associate with women’s game in the University of Ibadan, and that had been employed in the last two editions. There is also the introduction of transfers for the female category, which is limited to two players per department, but the players to be transferred are restricted to only non-participating departments. Unlike last year’s edition, there will however be no transfers in the men’s category, possibly due to the expanded format this year.
Male Category
The World Cup edition debuts 12 groups of 4 teams each, A-L, with the top 2 teams in each advancing to the next round, where they will be joined by the 8 best third-placed teams to complete the round of 32.
The defending champions customarily have their slot in group A, and the chance to draw first blood with it. There will be a new look about this team, as last year’s edition saw veterans Karbon, Teslim, captain Ramoni and coach Liam take their final bow out of the competition. They will be joined by the Orodin-led Vet Med, Baaloo’s AIS and an EHS team who have it all to do against this MBBS side, who are still yet to lose a game in 906 days, a run stretching all the way back to October 23, 2023, a narrow 1-0 loss against Political Science in the semi finals of Seals Cup 2023, in what was also their first goal conceded all tournament. Remarkably, the 2023 edition was also their debut at the tournament! The third-place match against Computer Science, which ended 1-0 in favour of the champions, kick-started a run that is now 15 games strong.
Group B will be home to last year’s beaten finalists, Bade-led Human Kinetics, who will no doubt fancy another bite of the cherry after falling just narrowly short. They will have to contend with Urban & Regional Planning, History and Dentistry however for a slot in the knockout round.
Two teams from the Faculty of Tech will have it all to play for in Group C, with the Zico-led Petroleum Engr, last year’s bronze medalists, slugging it out against Philosophy, Physiology and an Agric & Environmental Engineering team without talisman Ehis. Philosophy’s Plato Academy, runners-up in 2022 and winners in 2023, notably have not been the same since the loss of Papi, and will be hoping to take once more after disappointing showings in the last two editions.
Whoever fills the void left by the exit of leading man Heskeyman in Civil Engineering’s midfield will no doubt have big boots to fill, as they take the fight to Quantity Surveying, Sociology and Forestry in Group D.
2024 silver medalists, IPE, will be looking to prove doubters wrong, especially those who have heralded the exodus of their famed “golden generation” to graduation. Of that stalwart group that had the likes of Deji, Bukunmi, VK, Zee and Kenneth, only Pamilerin, Pius and Abraham remain. They certainly are a trio to watch out for and will be joined in Group E by Agbowo’s Science & Technology Education, Music, and Chemistry.
Mbappe’s Statistics will be looking to get it over the line against Geology, Botany and an Educational Management team headlined by forward Korede for the two guaranteed knockout spots in Group F.
Microbiology, Nursing, and Animal Science will each fancy their chances of progressing from Group G against a Wood and Biomaterial Engineering (formerly WPE) team reeling from their loss of deadly attacking duo Akinpade and Captain Mjay.
It remains to be seen who will step in between the sticks for Political Science this year – after the exit of an Olami that has been a key fixture in their deep knockout runs in the Seals Cup – in a Group H that will see them have it out against Biochemistry, Food Technology, and Physics. Replacing the indefatigable Pogba in the midfield will also be key for the Political Science boys.
Group I will be home to Law, Archeology & Anthropology, English and Psychology.
With Musty now graduated, Pharmacy will be counting on Ifco to see them through against Mathematics, A.S.S.E and Linguistics in Group J.
In Group K we will see 2023 semi-finalists Computing go head to head against Physiotherapy, Electrical Engineering and Biomedical Laboratory Science, no doubt aiming to better their fourth-placed finish at the tournament.
Rounding out the male draw is Group L, where Economics, Mechanical Engineering, C.L.A and Classics will fight for the final two automatic qualification spots.
Women’s Category
The 16 departments in the women’s tournament have been divided into four groups of four, to contest in the revamped 7-a-side format.
Group A has defending champions Human Kinetics who will be gunning to be the first team to win two. They will be joined in Group A by Nursing, Computing and LARIS.
In Group B, runners-up Philosophy will be looking to go one better than last year but first have to navigate ties against Linguistics, Physiotherapy and Mathematics for a place in the last 8.
The winners of the inaugural edition, A.S.S.E were another victim of the so-called “SEALS champions curse” in 2025. They pooled 2 points to finish third in their group and will instead be hoping for a repeat of their memorable 2024 win. They will have it out against Microbiology, C.L.A and Geology in Group C.
Group D has MBBS, who were so close to doing the double with the men’s team in 2024, narrowly losing out to ASSE after a strong tournament showing. While the 2025 edition saw an early exit at the group stage, the team will no doubt be charging to get going once more. It remains to be seen whether captain Chidinma will return to add to her tally in the competition. Law, EHS, and back-to-back semi-finalists Archeology & Anthropology will be the opponents for the final two spots in the quarter-final.
With the freshly expanded male draws and the reinvented women’s format, the World Cup edition holds much promise, and looks set to be the grandest edition yet. Kick-off is 4 PM tomorrow, Friday April 17, and as usual, the champions will be the first to show their hand.
