The joy of National Sports Commission (NSC) Chairman Mallam Shehu Dikko over CHAN Eagles’ qualification for CHAN 2025 holds no bounds. Little wonder he instantly dolled out N10m to the team for defeating Ghana 3-1 in Uyo on Saturday to secure the ticket.
Speaking after the team’s exploits, Dikko has restated the Commission’s commitment towards the sports economy with the domestic league as one of the major vehicles to drive the process.
His words, “This qualification means a lot to us at the NSC. You can see how excited my DG, Hon. Bukola Olapade and I were over the result. We have set our goals and we know the exact routes to take to achieve those goals. For us to achieve our goals, the domestic League must be functional, so we must do all we can to support and enable this. That is why we are so delighted that Nigeria’s flag will be hoisted at a competition that parades the best in the continent’s domestic leagues. Pele once said that a country’s national team is as good as the league. So if our boys don’t make it to such tournaments, it doesn’t give us the confidence and belief needed in driving the process. It surely slows down what we are working on.”
He continued, “England hasn’t won any major trophy in football since 1966, but they have the most viable domestic football league in the world. England can play tournaments without being in the final for years, but their emphasis is on how the domestic clubs and the league are faring. One club in England creates job for about 4,000 people and hundreds of millions in Gross Value Addition to the economy and indeed taxes and wealth creation with about 1.5m annual visitors attracted to the club facilities in tourism. You can see the ripple effect on their economy. That is the route we are taking now and on what benchmark we ought to be rating our domestic leagues.
“We want to deemphasize on competitions and grow our sports domestically. That is why we have told the various Federations that if they come to us to approve or support their trips abroad for tournaments, we will revert to how many tournaments they have had in that calendar year. We want to know how much they have done to develop that very sport domestically before engaging them.
“The league is our own product and we must be committed to its success. If we get the domestic league and competitions functioning, it will assist us realize the sports economy we are driving at.”
He charged the CHAN Eagles to take the form to their various clubs and make the league more exciting.
“Those days we saw Sikiru Olatunbosun’s goal for MFM awarded CNN’s goal of the week. That is what we want from our players in the league. When the players excel, it rubs off on the quality of matches played and makes the league more marketable and drive the fans to the stadium. Let this success propel the boys to greater heights at club level. They are quite a talented bunch and buttresses what we have been saying over the years that talents abound in our league”, he added.
He tipped them for glory at the CHAN finals.
“They haven’t qualified for the past two editions. It is so heartwarming that they have made it this time. Now we want them to do better than in 2018 when they lost in the final and thus we enjoin the NFF to ensure immediate camping and preparation of the boys whilst promising that the NSC would engage with the NFF to ensure that everything needed to ensure the success of the team will be done accordingly “, he concluded.
