BY JOSEPH ODOEKWU
The National Chairman of the Nigeria Football Supporters Club (NFSC) Rev. (Amb) Samuel Ikpea has charged the sports ministry and the different relevant sports federations to start early preparations ahead of the 2028 Olympics billed to take place in Los Angeles in the United States.
Ikpea disclosed this while delivering his keynote address during the 4th annual forum tagged Paris Olympics: Rising From the Ashes, which took place at the Abesan Youth Centre in Lagos on Saturday.
The NFSC boss who was represented by Joseph Odoekwu at the event expressed dissatisfaction with our attitude of seeking miracles to win medals at the Olympics despite not putting up adequate preparations.
He regretted that even what Nigeria budgeted for the 2024 Olympics was not even up to what countries like the United States, China, Great Britain amongst others budget for preparations alone and also charged that serious attention be given to early training.
While commending the Super Falcons of Nigeria for qualifying for the just concluded Olympics which was the first in the last 16 years, he however added that their inability to win a single game during the group fixtures was nothing to write home about.
Ikpea further expressed that the poor performance of the Nigerian men U23 national team who have failed to qualify for the men’s Olympic after winning the bronze at the Rio 2016 Olympics is so pathetic. For a country that has won gold, silver and bronze at the Olympics, this is so sad he concluded.