Enthusiast Urges Focus On Grassroot Football Dev

A football enthusiast in Rivers
State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo, has appealed to State Governments to give
more attention to grassroot football development with the view to restoring the
past glory of the sport in Nigeria.

Okonkwo,
who stated this in Port Harcourt said that football administrators in the
country have not toed the right part of talent discovery which must start from
the grassroot level.

“Sincerely,
there are lots of young talents at the grassroots but reasonable efforts have
not been made to discover and harness the good ones among the lot, he said.

It
is a high time our primary and secondary school sports competitions be given
serious attention by various state governments instead of over relying on
established players, who have passed their prime,” he added.

He
continued that going back to the grassroots to hunt for young talents is the
only solution that would change the dwindling fortune of Nigerian football for
the better.

Speaking
on the non-inclusion of a Nigeria player in the 2012 GLO-CAF Award billed to
hold later in the year, Chief Okonkwo said he was not surprised judging from
the dearth of quality in Nigerian players, especially, strikers.

It
is not in doubt that Nigeria has great players but her greatest undoing lies on
the attacking line and it is unfortunate that no Nigerian striker is in top
form at their various club sides in Europe. That is where CAF usually focuses
attention when considering who to be honoured as an African footballer of the
year.

He
however, urged Nigerian players to work hard in the forthcoming Nations Cup
billed for South Africa, so that they will be recognised by CAF ahead of the
2013 edition of the award.