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.