Athletics Federation of Nigeria President, Chief
Solomon
Ogba, was a guest of the Super Eagles technical crew on Wednesday night,
during
which he canvassed more support for the national teams, football in
particular
and sports in general.
Ogba, was accompanied in his brief visit by
Olympics 400m
relay gold medallist, Enefiok Udobong, former 100m sprinter and now
coach with
the AFN, Gabriel Okon and AFN Scribe, Mrs Maria Wophill.
In a boisterous interraction with the coaching
crew led by
Stephen Keshi, with Dan ‘The Bull’ Amokachi, Hyoudonou Valere and Coach
Ike
Shorunmi listening, Ogba said he feels that football and indeed sports
in the
country was grossly underfunded, hence the recent issue of bonus row in
the
national team.
He declared that one way by which this could be
redressed is
to ask all major multinationals to take charge of particular sports,
while
government will net their expensis off through tax holdidays.
“The
Federal
government can say for instance that the NNPC should take charge of the
sponsorship of football in the country, MTN can be directed to sponsor
athletics, Glo can handle the league as they are already doing,
NestlePlc,
basketball and so on. With that we will have more accountability and
government
will be relieved of the burden of sports sponsorship and we will make
the
suggestions to the appropriate quarters”, he quipped.
Keshi who responded on behalf of his technical
crew, agreed
with the submission of Ogba, and urged sports administrators to stop
seeing the
athlete and coaches as being in competition with them. “The athletes
fights
hard for their income because their business is time limited and they
must
ensure that their future is a bit assured before they quit the scene,
hence we
see clashes between interest groups in sports often”.
Meanwhile, Keshi has praised the Presidency
through the
Presidential Task Force, the Sports Ministry and the Nigeria Football
Federation over the commissioning of its new headquarters in Abuja on
Thursday.
“It is indeed gladdening that for the first time in our football history
the
federation has an office to call its own. We are sure that in the coming
years
this commendable project will be improved upon by successive football
administrators”, Ben Alaiya, Super Eagles Spokesman quotes Keshi as
saying.
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