HFN Restates Commitment To Youth Dev

The Handball Federation of Nigeria (HFN), has restated its commitment to youth development programmes as a way of reviving the sport.

HFN President, Yusuf Dauda told newsmen that the developmental programmes were to identify talents that would regain the country’s lost glory in handball.

“We have realised that we have to go back to the grassroots and discover talents for us to restore the lost glory of handball in Nigeria,” Dauda said.

He said the federation had been working hard to ensure that its U-12, U-15, U-18 and U-21 championships that started in 2011 produced quality players.

Dauda said that a good number of players from the youth programmes formed the national junior teams that represented the country at the Challenge Trophy Competition Ghana last month.

The HFN boss said the players proved their competence by winning their matches at the tournament from the preliminaries to the final.

“Majority of them are products of our grassroots programmes, they were selected, based on their abilities and follow-up progrmmes and these brought out the best in them,” he added.

Dauda said the HFN now had a formidable national junior team that could represent the country proudly in championships.

He said the federation was integrating the young talents with exceptional abilities into the senior national teams.

The president called for collaboration between the National Sports Commission and philanthropists in supporting the revival of handball.