Premium Plus Fitness Club has been crowned champions of the Big Eight Team Tournament after edging DMX-JBC-HNS FC in the grand finale at the East Wembley Plus in Legon.

The much anticipated and awaited eight-team knockout tournament, which featured some top community teams as well as teams led by some top renowned business moguls, drew lots of eyeballs from far and near to the games.

D’Global Entertainment was the first team to advance to the semis after they beat Smash Community 4-0 in the first quarter-final matchup, while DMX-JBC-HNS FC booked a semi-final ticket at the expense of Metrix Gym, beating their opponents by 3-0.

In the other two quarter-final games, Team Alien GH suffered a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Premium Plus Fitness Club, with SK FC completing the semi-final set with the same scoreline over Team Yaro.

It was a thrilling encounter in the first semifinal fixture, which saw Premium Plus Fitness Club beat D’Global Entertainment by 2-0 to set up a final clash against DMX/JBC/HNS FC, who also got the better of SK FC by a solitary goal.

The grand finale produced what was an epic showdown at the East Wembley Plus, with eventual winners Premium Fitness Club and DMX-JBC-HNS FC playing out a pulsating 2-2 draw after regulation time before Premium Fitness Club went on to be crowned champions after winning 3-2 in the resulting shootout.

The winners walked home with a cash prize of $2,000 from the organizers, Smash Sneakers, with other prizes also going to some of the best players from the tournament, as well as Samuel Sarpong of SK FC winning the best player of the tournament.

Speaking after the game, the CEO of Wiafe Motors, Yaw Barima Wiafe, expressed his satisfaction with the maiden edition of the games and urged other groups to join the programme in the subsequent editions.

“It was an exciting tournament, and I’m pleased with how things went and the turnout as well. We are hoping and praying we can do this at the end of every month, so we can come together to have fun and compete”, he said.

The Deputy Captain of Premium Plus Fitness Club, Dennis Afriyie, speaking after guiding his team to glory, said, "It was a tough final for us, but we gave our best and won by penalties. We know the other teams will come in more prepared in the next edition, so we are also going to prepare more and improve."

The CEO of Bruce Motors, Albert Bruce, speaking as a member of the organizing body, lauded the various teams for their participation and also their sportsmanship.

Bruce added, "We want to organize it every last month of the year. We want to improve the tournament and make it more fun. I really enjoyed it today, and I'm hoping we could have some musicians perform in the subsequent editions."