Sports
Director Harps On Politicians, Sports Administrators’ Synergy
Programme Director of University of Lagos, Prof. Clement Fasan, on Wednesday in Lagos called for more synergy between politicians at the decision making level and the sports sdministrators that were responsible for projects actualisation.
Fasan, made the call in an interview with newsmen on the sidelines of an advanced management course for sports administrators.
The course was put together by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) in Lagos.
Tidesports source reports that the IOC/NOC Advanced Management Course was declared open on Tuesday with 24 participants drawn from across the country.
The IOC certificate course aims at organising and managing Olympic sports in the country.
The facilitators include Emeritus Prof. Clement Fasan who is the Programme Director and Jonathan Dyagas who is Co-Programme Director among others.
The three days course examined “Organising an Olympic Sport’’, “Introduction to the Educational Ethic of Sports’’ and General View on Organising Sports’’.
Fasan said that there must be a mutual understanding between sports administrators and the politicians in order to effectively fashion a good development programme for sports.
“It is one thing for the administrators to come with laudable ideas on developmental programmes for sports and it is another thing for it to be vetted by the political class.
“What if there is no political will to push the project into limelight because truth must be told, some sports programmes may not bring instant dividends, which may not be interesting to the political class.
“What the sports administrators should do is to absorb most of the politicians into their board; they should be carried along in the elementary process of the project.
“I have been in the forefront of canvassing for political class in the composition of sports boards so as to foster better synergy because alienating them from the process may be a hindrance,’’ he said.
Fasan said that the political class played a major role in sports development, adding that sports remained one of the tested and trusted binding force for all races.
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor