…restates commitment to grassroots sports development
Executive Chairman of the Edo State Sports Commission, Desmond Enabulele, has promised to act within the limit of the mandate that the Commission was given by Governor Monday Okpebholo for grassroots sports development in the state.
The Edo State Sports Commission boss made the declaration through Hon Baldwin Bazuaye, the Executive Director representing Edo South District in the Commission who represented him at the occasion of the forum of Nigeria Football Development held inside the Media Centre of the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin City on Wednesday.
He said that the commission will continue in the direction of the Okpebholo admistration’s policy and programmes which lay emphasis on grassroots sports development and deemphasize poaching of athletes in the state.
While also speaking,Comrade Austin Popo, Director of Boots For Grassroot Project Africa, Convener of the Forum, said that Nigeria’s “football pyramid structure needs a solid foundation to be sustainable, impactful and command the results we strive to achieve at the continental and global levels,” adding “the grassroots sits at the base of our football pyramid structure.”
On youths football development, he asserted that it “will become for our youths a tool for good life, with which they can attain social competence, economic liberty, protection against neglect, exploration and abuse.
According to him, “the status of the development of football for youths in Nigeria can’t be said to be above the average level, and is a major trigger of the crises we continue to have in our football in Nigeria. This is because certain features of poor development still characterize the football business in Nigeria.”
Comrade Popo, an ex-international soccer star, described as “the biggest tragedy and drawback” Nigeria’s club ownership structure “centred on States government ownership” which he said has resulted in the inability “for our clubs to retain our quality players transiting from youth football to professional football League and by extension to the national teams.”
In his own submission, Fred Newton Erhunmwunse, Chairman of the Edo State Football Association, inferred that in its drive to elevate grassroots football development in the state, the Association will henceforth ensure that coaches to be engaged are certified.
