BY SUNDAY AKINTOYE
Chairman of Lagos based Nath Boys Football Club, Yemi Idowu stated that Nigerian grassroots football can be better if those who are in charge of round leather game and other relevant football bodies embark on proper grassroots football restructuring in the country.
Idowu diclosed this at the just concluded 1XBET Community Cup final held recently at Mobolaji Johnson known as Onikan Stadium.
The Lagos football administrator while speaking with journalists applauded the progress academies have made in nurturing talents but insisted that without a strong grassroots and junior structure, the system remains incomplete.
“I would be happier if we have a good youth junior structure in place now. At the moment it’s bit disjointed. So we have something we can use as a track record to show what works and what doesn’t work. So what works is what we did from 2010 till now.
“But the junior structure needs to be looked at, and especially grassroots. We need to pay more attention to grassroots football and allow the local coaches and the academies to take more prominence,”he said.
Idowu went ahead to say grassroots football structures should be handled by state or local government and frowned over the idea of allowing the kids or young players to travel far for a competition.
“The junior structure must be allowed to be with the states and the local government. They should be allowed to fund the infrastructure, allow the children not to travel too far. If you want to play every week, you can’t travel too far.
” What Morocco has done, is the end of a long journey. That Muhammad center, King Muhammad center that you see, is the top of a grassroot structure. If you go to the villages in Morocco, you will see the structure. That is what we don’t see in our country.
“That kind of thing is just a grass field. You don’t need to build a stadium and it’s cheap to do. And you must have your junior leagues there. So when we talk of Morocco, let’s not look at the infrastructure and that stuff. Let’s look at our basic things. Today we can’t even get a competition grade football in Nigeria. All the football they are selling is fake,”he said.
Idowu who is passionate about grassroots football development said his advice for the football authorities is to provide basic necessity and create enabling enviroment for the coaches,players and other football stakeholders to work noted that without necessary support from the government or private sector ,grassroots football would remain the same spot.
“Let the Nigerian Sports Commission distribute free football, quality football. It costs nothing. Don’t bother about building stadiums. Don’t worry about that, give small allowances to coaches. Transport allowance is a small amount of money. Give some kind of training bibs to the coaches to give to their players and you would see changes,”he stated.
Commenting on the reasons why Nigerian young players are not featuring in the NPFL league,Idowu explained that some of the coaches prefer to keep old players in the club rather than giving youths a chance.
He disclosed that many Junior players would continue to leave the country unless the old plyers leave the stage to allow their younger footballers to come in.
“The academics are doing the right thing and the league is not doing the right thing.Once you get to a certain age, you should not be in an academy anymore. The moment you are not able to make the grade, you should not continue playing. You must make the space for the younger people to come in there. When you don’t make the space for the younger people to come, they will go to where they will allow them to play.
” So a league team must allow junior players to play for one or two years before they go out. But when you populate the place with old players and you don’t allow junior players to play, what will happen? The junior players will go to where they allow them to play.
“The league cannot retain the top players. Even Bulgaria cannot retain the top players. Serbia cannot retain the top players. So Nigeria will not retain the top players. But the league can allow the junior players to play one or two years before they go abroad. And that will make money for them. But for as long as they sit on top of the structure and block progression you would get the same results every time,”he said.
When asked for advice to other academies, Idowu remained upbeat of the work being done by various football clubs and academics to raise future stars.
