Sports
Coach Advises HFN To Organise Courses
Handball Coach Solomon Yola told the Handball Federation of Nigeria (HFN) ?????? to organise refresher courses regularly to make referees improve officiating standards in the elite league.
Yola told the newsmen in Lagos that the courses would equip technical officials with skills to officiate at the national league.
Expressed his delight at the return of the league, held last in 2011, he said that referees needed to be refreshed on new rules to make the competition outstanding.
“Refresher courses for technical officials are necessary to create a good platform for fair officiating, it is most important for the HFN to give the programme more attention.
“The league has come back to stay and it will be to the credit of the federation to strengthen the ability of the referees to make the competition credible.
“The standard of officiating at the beginning of the league held last month in Kaduna was good. However, there are still some technical deficiencies that need to be updated.
“There must be standard officiating in the league to make it standout and set the pace for officiating or reference point for other championships in the country.’’
Yola described the league as a competition that brought clubs from various states together, stressing that seasoned referees should be allowed to officiate at the event.
The coach also advised HFN to make the refreshers courses comprehensive and compulsory for national referees.
“Apart from the National Sports Festival, where every state will have opportunity of presenting their clubs, this is another atmosphere where clubs come to compete among themselves.
“The federation must apply strict measures to technical issues by making sure that only referees who take part at the courses should be considered for officiating at the league.’’
He said the officiating standard would go a long way to guiding participating teams in their performances, adding that the rules were standard and could not accommodate any form of violation.
“Once the awareness is there on what is required of teams at the league, they will make extra effort to play by the rules.”
A well-known football pundit in the State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has lauded the efforts and vision of the Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to invite some exceptional good one discovered into the main stream of the Super Eagles team.
Okonkwo, who made the commendation in an interview at the Port Harcourt Club recently, described the positive move by Coach Chelle as a good step in the right direction, noting that the practice was how its been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged Coach to lead the National team, visiting some our Nigeria League venues during the league matches to spot light some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of Eagles team”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continously been over depending on the use of foreign based players during invitation of players to the National camp, thereby, relegating the domestic home based league players to the background as if they have nothing much to offer to the team.
“I can vividly recall that the likes of great players in the mode of Finidi George, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Richard Owobokiri, Emmanuel Osuigwe among others started from Nigeria football league before they graduated to play in Europe through which they later invited to Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serves as a a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in near future”, Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself in staying in big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discover some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there some young good players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, could give the some of the invited foreign based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a postion in the team”, Okonkwo emphatically stated.
Ezechukwu, one of the youngest members of the Nigerian contingent at the championship in Ghana, said her ambition was to win the 100m title in style and cap it with a new personal record.
The fresh secondary school graduate explained that she is fully focused on contributing to Team Nigeria’s medal hopes and is determined to deliver strong performances across her events.
“My main objective in Ghana is to clinch the 100m title and the 4×100m,” Ezechukwu told Tidesports source.
“Nigeria can be assured of my very best and my commitment to the Team. I would love to set a new personal best in Ghana, but anything that comes, I will take it. The spirit in the team is high, and I think we are ready to go,” she said.
Ezechukwu, who was part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay squad at the World Relays in Botswana, said the experience gained from that competition has strengthened her mindset heading into the continental championships.
She admitted that she learned valuable lessons from her previous outing, including a difficult moment during the relay where an early error affected the team’s rhythm, but said she has used the experience to improve her discipline and composure.
“The secret is just being disciplined, training hard and trusting my coach and believing in God, and the result will show,” she added.
The teenager is part of a 41-member Nigerian team comprising 24 female and 17 male athletes competing at the championships, which begin today at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Nigeria are expected to compete across multiple track and field events as they aim for a strong finish against the continent’s elite athletes.
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