Dare promises to improve nation’s football leagues

By Ihesiulo Grace

5 November 2019

Sports

Lagos – The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, has promised to meet with all the key stakeholders in order to draw a strategic plan on how to improve the domestic leagues.

The minister said in Lagos on Tuesday that his promise was in line with in line with his quest for inclusiveness in sports, after he watched the final match of the Nigeria Women Premier League (NWPL) between Rivers Angels and Confluence Queens.

Dare also said that it was important to ensure that the stakeholders paid attention to the development of this sport.

“We will meet with all the key stakeholders before end of November to start to draw a strategic plan on how to improve the domestic league.

“Like I said earlier, it is very critical, it is the engine room of our football development, that’s where we produce our professional players that can go abroad.

“We are going to pay close attention working with the NFF, the club owners and the referees and coaches to isolate the issues and deal with them,” he said in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Kola Daniel.

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Dare restated the commitment of the sports ministry to give prominent attention to other sports, adding that there was a clear direction to what strategy the ministry would use to develop sports.

“The ministry’s commitment is supporting other sports is unwavering, we have started out by making a declaration to support other sports.

“I have watched football games, I have watched badminton games, I have watched handball games, I have been to basketball games, and I have also been to athletics.

“That shows our clear direction, it signposts where we are headed and in the coming months we will make sure we provide resources, and support through private funding.

“We will support virtually every critical sport, about 11 of them where this country has competitive edge, particularly I have the Olympics in sight Tokyo 2020,” he said.

Dare praised the skills displayed by the female footballers and promised more support for female football in the country.

“The question should be, with this level of professional skills we have seen on display among the female footballers, what would the ministry do more to help them?

“I am impressed with the performance of our female footballers, we have seen female professional football at its best and we have seen the exhibition of talents.

“We know some of our footballers are headed for the Professional League outside of this country.

“All I can say is that the ministry will partner with the federation, we will also try to see that we get them sponsorship to support them to do better,” he said.

He added that he had held two high level side meetings geared towards greater Youth and Sports Development, before arriving to watching the final match of the NWPL at the Agege Stadium, Lagos. (NAN)