By Okechukwu Keshi Ukegbu
Recently, another milestone was achieved in Abia when one of its top-flight Football Clubsides, Abia Warriors unveiled its Unders 13 and 15 Academy.
The event came on the heels of this year’s Abia Warriors Football Club of Umuahia Youth Development Program which held on Monday 28th August and Tuesday 29th August at the Broadcasting Corporation of Abia State (BCA) playing pitch.
The essence of the programme, according to the Chairman of the Club, High Chief Emeka Inyama, was to discover talents from the grassroots and nurture them to stardom in the club, and also to give back to the society from which the club has drawn its support over the years.
The programme has started yielding results as some of the players who participated in last year’s edition have broken into the club’s mainstream and have demonstrated appreciable competence.
Worthy of note here is that Abia Warriors featured in the maiden edition of League Management Committee (LMC) /LALIGA U15 Football competition played early this year. Though the club did not win the competition, the club fared appreciable in the competition as some its players were adjudged valuable players in the competition. This feat attracted the Abia Warriors Academic Scholarship award to one of the players to enable him combine both academic and football careers effectively.
Youth programmes in clubsides have served as massive resource and bank from which clubsides can tap from, especially in the European setting. Typical examples are Ryan Giggs and Paul Sholes of Manchester United of England who broke from the youth team to remain consistent, reliable and resourceful players of the club. The programme enables players to imbibe the philosophy of the team from that age, and also ensure that the team has a pool of players that can easily graduate into the main team in the future.
The importance of Youth Sports Development cannot be over-emphasised. This is because that the youths need this programme to develop their sports talent.This programme is not only fundamental in promoting the sporting culture among young people in Nigeria, but will further decrease the crime rate among idle youths in the country.
We are acutely- aware of the fact that sport possesses the potentials for addressing unemployment among Nigerian youths. Therefore, when sport is properly organized and managed, it can serve as an economic catalyst for any nation.
Sporting activities such as football have boosted the economic status of some families, especially those from the humble background. Therefore, capturing these footballers at tender ages will enable them to remain focused and pursue their careers vigorously.
From the onset, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu placed premium on sports. While congratulating the palyers and management of Enyimba Football during the victory at the 2014/2015 Nigeria Glo Premier League Competition against Sunshine Stars Football Club of Akure at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos,the governor said that by Enyimba’s victory it was confirmed that Abia State remains Nigeria’s soccer power house.
The Governor also reaffirmed the commitment of his administration towards youth and sports development, noting that Abia is home to great talents and potentials in all works of life which he has set out to develop and expose to the world.
Indeed, Abia is assuming a sports power house in the country. It maintains two top- flight clubsides, Abia Warriors and Enyimba International in the country’s apex soccer league. When Governor Ikpeazu assumed office, he cleared all outstanding Salaries owed Enyimba International and Abia Warriors players. The state also took over the management and ownership of its female football team, Abia Angels. This feat has given the state an edge as the only state in the SouthEast that owns a female football club playing in the elite division of Nigeria Female football.
Gov. Ikpeazu’s administration has ensured construction of facilities at both Umuahia and Enyimba International of Aba stadia, some at the world-governing body (FIFA) standard.
Also, mandate has been given by Gov. Ikpeazu’s administration to the Ministry of Sports to upgrade and construct sports infrastructures, rehabilitate and liaise with relevant authorities to revive school sports, facilitate grassroot sports, revisit intra and inter-local government sports competitions, repackage holiday sports programme and ensure regular training and retraining of sports officials.
Abia is fast assuming the destination of everything and in few days ahead, sports will not be an exception.
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