Government Negligence Makes Football Official Sport-Ewenla

Business man and grand patron of Baskenny boxing club, Alhaji Akindipe Ewenla says government deliberate policy of neglecting other sports like boxing, athletics to mention a few is the main reason football has emerged as the number one sport in Nigeria.

No doubt about the round-leather game’s popularity in Nigeria, but in recent times other sports have also brought recognition to the country. 

The exploits of our Boxers, Wrestlers, Weightlifters and so on at the All African Games in Brazzaville and on the international scene lays credence to this.

And in an apparent show of support for equity and fairness to other sports from the government, the business man maintained that the attitude must change.

“I have nothing against football. But, in a country of more than 170m people, I don’t like people saying football is our number one sport.

“No! it is wrong. What we are seeing is the effect of years of negligence and apathy to other sports at the expense of football. We have produced world beaters in boxing; athletes that brought us recognition before football started to push us into the limelight.

“All African Games in Brazzaville validates this point. Our Boxers were on point while our footballers faltered. 

So what are we saying? Stop paying lip service to not only boxing and other sports too, then you will see the giant leap we’ll make,” he told golden gloves.