Football devt: Return to Academicals — Uzokwe tells NFF

 

Ex-international Evans Uzokwe has tasked the Nigeria Football Federation to strengthen the mechanism for development of players at the grassroots level in order to make the national team have more players from home.

He specifically wants academicals football to be made a top priority. He said academicals football must not be reduced to something that gets mere mention once in a year as the case is right now. He recalled that football used to be vibrant in schools across the country because there was a strong competition for academicals.

Speaking to our correspondent, Uzokwe, who played for Vasco da Gama of Enugu, Imo State, Spartans FC Owerri and Niger Tornadoes of Minna lamented that defending champion, Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the African Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea is proof that football in the country has drifted away from the sound foundation and concept of how the game had developed over the years. “We believe so much in miracles. Now that is clear that miracles no longer happen in football, the Nigeria Football Federation must take us back in time to the concept of how football was developed. We must restore Academicals football in schools and states as nucleus of development and as channels for talent hunt, talent development on a consistent basis. It would help the country nurture talents along the line of our brand of football.”

He said gifted players would continually be recruited into clubs until they were ripe for international assignment.

“These Days there is so much talk about football academies but we have no mechanism in place to monitor and control these to ensure what happens inside them are relevant to our needs.

“However, with Academicals football in place as in the 1970’s the rivalry between states produced most of the players that made the national teams., the sky is the limit because within the time that players passed through tests and competitions of varying degrees and categories, those with rare qualities would emerge once more for the national teams such as under-20 when it was introduced and the senior team.”