Kumasi-based King Faisal FC’s Chief Executive, Samuel Odoteye, led a rare assault on the Joy FM Invitational Soccer Tournament held at the weekend when his male and female teams from his company, Vallex-Lease-Equip picked the ultimate diadems in their respective competitions. Vallex-Lease-Equip beat Multichoice DsTV 3:2 on penalties to win the men’s competition and the giant gold trophy, while their women side also accounted for Kimo Industries by the same score line. The fun-filled annual invitational tournament held at the El Wak Sports Stadium and in its second year, looked set to grow into a top-notch competition, heavily patronized both by competitors and spectators on Saturday when Ghana marked her 53rd Independence Anniversary. The participating teams were Amalbank, CDH Investments, DsTV, Kimo, Merchant Bank, Printwear, Procredit, SIC Insurance, Stanbic Bank, Stanchart, Team Joy, Unibank, UT Financial, Vallex Leasing, and Zenith Bank. The games produced very competitive encounters, particularly with Vallex-Lease-Equip playing very structured soccer and raising suspicions they harboured professional players which attracted hushed protests from some of the other participating teams. But it was the women’s games that produced more of the fun, as their “penalty-kicks-only” tournament exposed the working-women-turned-footballers as persons who may have lost touch altogether with the sport altogether. While some of the kicks failed to even travel the short distance to the posts, others had their shoes flying after the balls as their kicks flew too high to be on target. For many others, their show of anguish when they miskicked or missed the goal was enough to split one’s side. Also to add to the fun were Multimedia presenters; Doreen Andoh, Nii Aryi Tagoe and Blakk Rasta whose selection of songs got players, spectators and chief executives dancing. And after making all the noise ahead of the tournament, the combined teams of Joy FM and Multi TV failed to win even a single game for both men and women’s teams, with the latter group excelling only in cheer songs just as their male counterparts spent the time since their quarter-final elimination ruing the missed opportunity to stage a ‘host-and-win’. As usual, they promised a better competition next edition, which according to Chief Operating Officer of Joy 99.7FM, Ekyi Quarm, will be bigger and better. View photographs from the games. Story by Myjoyonline.com/Ghana