BY MOSES ETU
Twice this week, I took a trip to Stephen Keshi Stadium which I regarded as my constituency. One was a private visit while the other one was to watch the final of the Principals Cup.
The first visit gave me an opportunity to interact with some managers of other sports and the second confirm my fear that other sports would continue to suffer as long as we continue to pay more attention on football and athletics. No doubt, football is the king of sports while athletics is the queen. Both seem to be in firm control of people’s passions and emotions.
For the avoidance of doubt, apart from football and athletics, we have other sports like Aquatic, Badminton, Handball, Hockey, Baseball, Basketball, Boxing and Cycling.
Others are Cricket, Golf, Judo, Karate. Gymnastics, Wrestling, Weightlifting, Tennis and Takwando.
The remaining ones are Shooting, Volleyball, Darts, Rugby, Ayo, Canoeing and Rowing.
It may sounds funny to hear what I call tales of woe from those in charge of other sports not only in Delta State but Nigeria as a whole as little attention is paid to these Sports.
Year in, year out, the bulk of the budget in sports goes to football and athletics, thus, it has reached the stage when Coaches and Secretaries do “Osusu” before they can attend any competition. From what I was told, they even contribute money to pay drivers allowances when they travel.
Whereas those in football enjoy traveling with new vehicles while those in other sports are made to do maintenance of vehicles before and after any competition.
The system must change as other sports face challenges in key areas such as resource and funding disparity.
The media coverage in Nigeria is dedicated to football and athletics which must change, thus leaving less airtime and visibility for other sports, which limits their ability to attract fans and sponsors.
Enhancing other sports requires comprehensive approach involving improvements in funding and infrastructure, Coaching,Media coverage and community engagement.
There is need therefore to improve the level of our facilities by investing more in building and maintaining accessible sports facilities. we need to provide a safe and suitable space for practice and competition so as to attract our youths.
We must also increase funding with government allocating dedicated resources and funding for non-football sports, particularly through tax incentives for private decor investment.
A critical look at foreign countries shows that the private sector are more involved in these other sports. This is why the government of the day must have a re- think and do all they can to encourage private sector participation in other sports.
As a matter of fact, it is pertinent to increase the use of media in other sports to raise the profile and popularity of other sports and their athletes especially in Delta State.
It is also essential for other sports to look beyond the state and engage in international collaboration and exchange programs to share knowledge resources and adopt effective strategies from other countries.
By doing this, they will attract sponsors, thus, the environment must be conducive to encourage sponsorship of programmed.
NFF and FIFA Funds
Based on my opinion last week on the trending level of corruption involving FIFA projects in Nigeria, a top journalist working for a private Television Station whose owner passed on long quite long called me on phone challenging me to write on Abigbirodo project if I have the guts to do so.
Why he called was because our own Amaju was deeply involved in the Abigbirodo project and since the matter is in court, it behoves on me to wait and see the outcome of the suit before coming out to say anything. Those who are familiar with me know that I will call a spade a spade no matter whose is involved
I laughed it off because I still stand by my claims that journalist are part of the problem and until we purge ourselves of certain things happening within the sports circle, we shall continue to suffer.
This is an era where as a result of stomach infrastructure, journalists hands are tied so when they see, they keep quiet for the fear of the unknown.
For football to move forward in this country and with the level of atrocities going on in Abuja, journalists must play their role and help the system to grow.
