NPL Scribe Clamors For Grassroots Football Development

Capital City Academy has emerged winners of the 2014 Gwagwalada Football Coaches U-15 Competition.

The defending champions defeated the Sensational Stars Academy by a lone  goal. The decisive goal was scored by Fareed Bello in the highly competed match which saw both sides settling for a barren draw in the first half. 
The goal came in the 70th minute from a well taken corner kick from Tochukwu Okejiaku.

The Sensational stars team  who played brillantly, hit the wood in the first half, but all their efforts could not match the determination of the more purposeful Capital City boys who were not ready to surrender the title they won last year.

Speaking at the Occasion, the  Executive Secretary of Nigeria Premier League, Mr. Tunji Babalola who was the Special Guest at the match,  insisted that the present downward trends in Nigeria football would continue until genuine attention is paid to the development of game from the grassroot.

The Scribe said no country ever develop in the game of football where administrators pay only lip services to the development of the game at the grassroots. 

“The future of the country’s football lies at the grassroots. We continue to bemoan the downward trend in our football, with less emphasis at the grassroots. 

“But we have not genuinely decided to work out modalities of how these ageing players would be replaced.

“We have not done enough to genuinely develop the talents at the grassroots, If we don’t take time, we would soon be faced with a situation where we would start to recycle same set of players at every tournament,” Tunji Babalola said.

 He called on the corporate bodies to collaborate with organizers of grassroots football tournaments to discover hidden and raw talents that would fly the country’s flag in the nearest future.

Also speaking at the occasion, former National U-20 Assistant Coach Samuel Abimbola was full of praises for the organizers of the tournament, saying that the with the abundance of talents that the country is blessed with, that Nigeria has all it takes to continue dominating youth football in the world.

He commended the youths for the exceptional skills they displayed at the tournament, and promised that those players that were identified would be recommended to the appropriate national team coaches.

The initiator of the tournament, Mr Godwin Bamigboye who is Chairman of the Nigeria Football Coaches Association, FCT Chapter said the program is part of their Holiday outreach program which is aimed at keeping the youths of that age category engaged all through the long vacation period.

He said similar tournament had been played in Kuje, Bwari and AMAC Area Councils of FCT.