Sports
Entrepreneur Bemoans Development Of Grassroots Sports
The organisers of the just-concluded 3rd Magic Tour Cycling Competition yesterday bemoaned the bureaucratic process involved in getting public schools to participate in grassroots competitions.
The Team Lead of the Organising Committee for the competition, Ikechukwu Agada, told newsmen in Lagos that this process had made it difficult to monitor the progress of talented young cyclists who attend public schools.
He said that one-third of the 500 children that participated in the recently concluded annual cycling competition, which held at Teslim Balogun Stadium last Friday, came from private schools.
“Our interaction with private schools has been encouraging because it is easier to monitor children from private schools, as a result of quick response to communication unlike the public schools.
“You can follow-up and get the private schools to participate at tournaments without much hassles, which is not the case with public schools because of the cumbersome process involved.
“Some of the directors in charge of public schools ask for money to transport the children to the venue before they can be allowed to participate in competitions, meant for grassroots sport development.
“I sincerely do not see anyway forward, regarding encouraging grassroots sports development in public schools if the directors continue like this,” he said.
Agada therefore, urged the Lagos State Government to look at easing the process of grassroots sports development in public schools to encourage entrepreneurs facilitate sports development in the state.
He said that the aim of grassroots competitions such as Magic Tour, was to help children to discover their sports talents and also create avenues for them to showcase the talents.
According to him, talents discovered at such tournaments can be nurtured to represent the country at international meets.
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
