Sports
Board Plans Workshop For Club Officials
A workshop for club officials in the Nigeria National League (NNL) would soon be organised to improve the league, the NNL board chairman said on Saturday in Abuja.
The board chairman, Chief Emeka Inyama, told newsmen in an interview that the workshop would be targeted at improving the officials’ administrative skills.
“Since our board came in late last month, we have identified the need to improve the state of the competition, and in doing this we discovered that we have to be operating on the same level with our club officials.
“This is because they are the frontline men in our quest to chart a new course for the competition, since they deal directly with the players and fans, as well as other stakeholders in the league.
“The workshop will deal with all issues militating against the league, and the club officials will share experiences which we will all use in charting a way forward for the competition,’’ he said.
Inyama, also a member of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) board by virtue of his headship of the NNL board, said capacity-building was essential for the league’s improvement.
“It is very essential that this is done regularly, because it is the key to making the league as highly competitive as it needs to be, and there will also be seminars for coaches and players too as time goes on,’’ he said.
Tidesports source reports that the NNL is the second tier of the Nigerian league, a step below the Premier League, with 32 clubs grouped into two.
Inyama whose board was elected on Jan. 29 in Abuja for a three-year tenure said the board has marshalled out plans to ensure success in its quest.
“We have highlighted all we need to do into immediate, medium and long-term plans, and we will be tackling issues as they come.
“However, we are going to immediately tackle the task of ensuring that we make the league attractive by engendering stiffer competition, giving it more media coverage, improving officiating and funding,’’ he said.
The chairman of Umuahia-based Abia Warriors Football club said his league board was already planning to make it compulsory for the participating clubs to have verifiable addresses.
“We are going to make it compulsory for all our clubs to have verifiable addresses and identifiable offices, where they can be contacted at all times.
“All of them will also be encouraged to have websites and e-mail addresses for ease of communication as well as good information flow. All this is to assist in making the league more prominent,’’ he said.
Inyama stressed the need for the league to get more prominence for it to attract more spectators and sponsors.
“Just as we have plans to raise the bars of officiating in the league and re-creating the league’s identity, we also need to make the competition and its clubs attractive to marketers.
“By creating awareness in and about the league, spectators will increase and there will be more sponsors, and this can be done with the help of marketers,’’ he said.
Iwobi spoke to Tidesports source ahead of Nigeria’s crunch playoff semi-final against Gabon on Thursday, November 13, in Rabat, Morocco.
The 28-year-old was reacting to Nigeria’s shaky World Cup qualifying campaign that saw the Eagles finish second in Group C behind South Africa’s Bafana Bafana.
“We’ve managed to rescue ourselves from the dead,” Iwobi told Tidesports source.
We know we have the players and the abilities to compete against any other country in the world.”
The Fulham star pointed to Nigeria’s star power, highlighting African Footballer of the Year winners Ademola Lookman and Victor Osimhen as proof of the squad’s quality.
“We have last year’s African best player (Ademola Lookman), the year before that (Victor Osimhen),” he said.
“It’ll be a shame if we don’t make it, but we have a lot of confidence. We just have to prove it to ourselves.”
Nigeria’s path to the United States, Canada and Mexico has been turbulent, with two coaches departing during the early stages of qualifying before Éric Chelle steadied the ship to steer the Super Eagles into November’s CAF playoffs.
Four nations from the continent – Nigeria, Cameroon, DR Congo and Gabon – will vie for a solitary spot to compete in next March’s inter-confederation playoffs, with a view to joining the already nine qualified African nations at the Finals.
It would mark Iwobi’s second appearance at the World Cup Finals and the Super Eagles’ first since the 2018 edition of the competition.
Back then, Iwobi featured in all three games as Nigeria was knocked out in the group stage.
The Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Publisher of the Atlantic Bell Online medium, Mr. Celestine Ogolo has advised sports writers in Nigeria to diversify in sports writing and not to concentrate on football reporting alone.
The Deputy National President of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Mr. Bonny Nyong has expressed commitment to support sports development and move SWAN forward.