There are many challenges that confront grassroots football, with money being just one of many. Poor facilities alongside coaching standards and lack of interest have cast doubts over where the future lies.
Many young men and women are hurting as they get shut out by unscrupulous coaches and agents thereby denying them opportunity to play.
It is obvious that thousands of young people are hurting all over our nation by being denied legitimate opportunities to grow into football stars. Talking about it seems to help but we would like to see change happen in our grassroots football here in Nigeria.
Therefore, our hope is that grassroots coaches and agents out there will begin to see the pain they are causing and change their approach towards young talents. Using myself as an example, because I experienced it – After following my friend to his training due to my love for football, I decided to join the academy and after that I still went on to get the necessary things needed for the training.
And after all these we were still asked to pay a sum of 50,000 thousand naira, not minding what the money was meant for, as a young man who loves football a lot, my worry was, how can I afford
such an amount without means of income or salary, which was a very big task.
There are more challenges facing grassroots football, unlike the one that after paying some amount to the owner of the academy that turns out to be the coach and promised to fly them abroad but at the end it was of no effect, a good friend of mine was a victim of such injustice.
Scouting for youths age raging from 10-20 years old with largely no income, with the aim of developing them may not be the idea of some profit minded person who set up a football academy. This is the more reason grassroots football has remained largely unscratched and the hidden treasure yet unearthed.
Grassroots football in Nigeria needs to be put together and well coordinated. There should be a better and solid foundation or platform for discovering young talent, while also providing conducive training facilities in order to ensure that the young stars are exposed to football as a profession.
There is every tendency that good sport facilities play an important role in developing local community’s football ,not only developing sporting experience and quality but also sustain and enhance participation to improve general skills.
The issue of sponsorship is something that must be looked at critically if there must be tangible development of grassroots football in the country.
No doubt, sponsorship plays a major role in taking grassroots football to another level, with examples like Copa coca cola, Gulder 5-A side, MTN Street Soccer, Pepsi and so on. A good and well established brand may be interested in sponsorship of your program, if it meets their objective as an organization.
Lastly, if one is setting up such grassroots football, a unique name should be given to it, in order to attract sponsorship, don’t just wake up one morning and give a name that will be so hard to tell what the future holds. Let us not just seat back and deceive ourselves, but to map out a strategy for a solid foundation. I believe by now Nigerians should be more focus, realistic and factual to grassroots football.
There are many challenges that grassroots football face, with money being just one of many. Poor facilities alongside coaching standards and lack of interest have cast doubts over where the future lies.
Many young men and women are hurting as they get shut out by unscrupulous coaches and agents thereby denying them opportunity to play. It is obvious that thousands of young people are hurting all over our nation by being denied legitimate opportunities to grow into football stars. Talking about it seems to help but we would like to see change happen in our grassroots football here in Nigeria.
Therefore, our hope is that grassroots coaches and agents out there will begin to see the pain they are causing and change their approach towards young talents. Using myself as an example,because I experience it. After following my friend to his training due to my love for sports,football to be precise. I decided to join the academy and after that I still went on to get the necessary things needed for the training.And after all these we were still asked to pay a sum of 50,000 thousand naira,not minding what the money was meant for, as a young man who loves football a lot, my worry was, how can I afford such an amount without no means of income or salary,which was a very big. task.
There are more challenges facing grassroots football,unlike the one that after paying some certain amount to the owner of the academy who turns out to be the coach and promised to fly them abroad but at the end it was of no effect,a good friend of mine was a victim to such injustice.
Scouting for youths age raging from 10-20 years old with largely no income,only just for their development may not be the idea of some profit minded person who set up a football academy. This is the more reason grassroots football has remained largely unscratched and the hidden treasure yet unearthed.
Grassroots football in Nigeria needs to be put together and well coordinated. There should be a better and solid foundation or should I say platform for discovering young talent,also providing conducive training facilities in order to ensure that the young stars are exposed to football as a profession.
There is every tendency that good sport facilities play an important role in developing local community’s football ,not only developing sporting experience and quality but also sustain and enhance participation to improve general skills.
Another answer to the development of grassroots football is the sponsorship. It plays a major role in taking grassroots football to
another level, with the likes of Copa coca cola, Gulder 5-A side ,MTN street Soccer,Pepsi and so on.They may be interested in sponsorship of your own program, if it meets their own objective as an organization.
Lastly,if one is setting up such grassroots football,a unique name should be given to it,in order to attract sponsorship,don’t just wake up one morning and give a name that will be so hard to tell what the future holds.let us not just seat back and deceive ourselves,but to seat up and map out a strategy for a solid foundation. I believe by now Nigerians should be more focus,realistic and factual to grassroots football.
