*Pre-season seminar begins in Ikenne
Chairman of Nigeria National League (NNL), Mr. George Aluo, has expressed happiness with the progress made by the league in the past one year, even as he urged teams that will take part in the 2024/2025 season to do better than last year’s teams.
He stated this in his opening speech at this year’s pre- season seminar organised for coaches and media officers of the most important league in the country.
According to him, the decision of the league board to be firm and unbiased in their decision nor bend rules of the game contributed greatly to a youthful team like Beyond Limits winning the league while El Kanemi of Maiduguri apart from winning the President Federation Cup is one of the only two teams that are presently unbeaten in the ongoing NPFL League.
Aluo further explained that the seminar became necessary considering the successes recorded in the maiden edition, hoping that what the participants will learn will rob off on the league.
” You know that in football, there are four groups very dear to FIFA, CAF and NFF and those groups are the players and coaches , referees, media and the fans. We bring the coaches here every year to get them better equipped because when the coaches are technically sound, the fans will watch good football.
” The referees on their part are the ones with the yam and knife and it’s what they give you in the field of play that you’re going to take. But the referees have laws and we need to be acquainted with those laws which is very dynamic and that was why we brought one of the best brains in refereeing in the country to be part of this seminar.
” There is also no denying the fact that football is a media event and it is the media that hypes the game and make it attractive to the fans and for me as a media person I know that the league will not be attractive without the media and that was why we have brought the coaches and media officers under one roof to share ideas with knowledgeable resource persons on how to make the league better.
He further explained that his idea as Chairman of the league is to see an NNL that’s solid, competitive and entertaining and not just being described as the most important league on paper but in the real sense of it
The NNL boss described the second tier league as the bridge between the amateur league and the other leagues noting that if the bridge is not solid, the domestic league won’t be solid; saying that is why they want to lay a solid foundation for the country’s football.
” Before this board came on board, people where describing the NNL as a glorified amateur league and that it is a cash-and- carry league but to the Glory of God, we can attest to it that we have changed that narrative.
” In one year, there’s statistics to show that we have really done well When we had the Super 8 in Enugu, the President of NFF, Alhaji Ibrahim Gusau despite his tight schedule, was there to watch the finals between Nasarawa Utd and Beyond Limits which shows the importance he attaches to the league and for the first time, the league was won by a youthful team made up of U-14-17 players and that also shows how solid our league is supposed to be because football belongs to the youths.
” What this shows is that we left the game open and there was integrity in all that we did because if we didn’t leave the league open there was no way Beyond Limits would have won the league”, he stressed.
Aluo used the occasion to commend his media colleagues for the support they’ve given him which now sees NNL competing for media space with the NPFL.
He was also grateful to the proprietor of Remo Stars Football Club, Hon. Kunle Soname for his sponsorship of the seminar describing him as a true partner in progress and a man passionate about football.
In his own remarks, Hon. Kunle Soname expressed happiness with the seminar; saying that for Nigerian football to grow, coaches must be trained regularly.
Soname who said his passion for football is making him invest in the game stated that football is a profitable business if properly managed and charged club owners to think less about winning at all cost but concentrate more on the welfare of their players.
