Sports
Continental Championships:NBBF Tasked On Support For Clubsides
The Chairman of Dol
phins Female Basketball Club, Wale Aboderin, has called on the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) to support clubs that would be representing the country at continental championships.
Aboderin told newsmen that the NBBF was not doing enough in supporting clubs financially.
He said that the two clubs that represented Nigeria at the 2014 Africa Club Championship (ACC) for Women were the only teams at the championship without support from their federation.
“We were the only teams both at the qualifiers and the championship without institutional, governmental or federation’s support in any way.
“We have been doing things by ourselves but for teams from other countries, their federations either buy tickets for them or paid for their registration fees or even paid the players’ allowances.
“But our federation is never there for us. Even to register our teams at the continent level, it takes a long process.
“So it is everyman for himself and at the end of the day the federation takes the credit.
“Why don’t they want to take more credit by giving a team like ours every opportunity to win the cup?
“Dolphins were the youngest team at the championship but what we did really caught everybody by surprise.
“If we won the championship couldn’t it have been to the credit and glory of the federation?,’’ Aboderin asked.
It will be recalled that Dolphins and First Bank Basketball Club represented Nigeria at the 2014 ACC for Women in Tunisia.
Dolphins crashed out of the championship at the group stage, while First Bank could not go beyond the quarter-final stage.
First Bank ended up fourth position on the table out of the 10 teams that participated, while Dolphins placed fifth.
The Dolphins chairman, however, alleged that some board members of the federation had not been sincere about the funds they got from the National Sports Commission.
“On one, hand you hear there is no funding.