The President of the Veteran Handball Team, Abuja, Mark Jacob, has urged the government to also give priority and attention to the development of other sports and not football alone.

Jacob told newsmen in Abuja that for effective changes in sports generally, the government should diversify to other sports.

“Government should diversify the budget on football. The budget on football alone is like 15 times higher than what any other sports get in this country.

“If government is serious about building sports generally in the country, over concentration of attention and high budgetary allocation to football should stop.

“If government gives handball one tenth of what it gives football, we can organise championship at all levels and will also be able to identify players that can make Nigeria  proud,” he said.

He said that private and public organisations declined to sponsor events in handball because no benefit would accrue to such organisations, stressing that it was constant competitions that can attract sponsorship.

The president noted that handball players in the country were ageing out and that there was no programme on ground to replace them with younger ones.

According to him, Nigeria failed to qualify for the London 2012 Olympics in July because there are no young and talented players that could guarantee qualification for the country.

The president blamed the Handball Federation of Nigeria for its inability to replace old players with new talented ones.

“If the present players were old, who is supposed to get the younger ones? It is the responsibility of the federation to get younger players and to know where to identify them.

“Why is basketball having younger players, why is football having younger players? This is because the coaches and the federations in charge have talents hunt programmes.’’

He urged the handball federation to map out developmental programmes  aimed at replacing the ageing players with new talented ones.