By Gracious Akujobi
Former Super Eagles player, Victor Ikpeba has observed that education can turn around a player’s life when he retires from active football.
Speaking to newsmen at Segun Odegbami’s book launch, he said that Odegbami’s action has shown clearly the power of education and sports.
A member of the NFF technical committee and also Delta state football association, Ikpeba said sportsmen and women have often been criticized for lack of education and as such the book would encourage him and thousands of ex and current footballers.
His words, “Because most footballers are not properly educated they do not do the right thing. They sometimes go astray, being carried away by fame and money and most of them do not realize there is life after football”
“It boils down to how they package themselves after football. It is necessary for a footballer to think what about they will do with themselves before they retire”.
He decried the situation whereby some ex-footballers wallow in abject poverty and advocates for a football union as well as helping hand from government to cater for the needs of such footballers.
“Our biggest challenge as footballers is that we do not have a viable Professional Football Union, which in my opinion is a set-back”
“I strongly believe we need to support ourselves with a functional players’ union because individually we cannot help much especially with ex-footballers who played in the 70’s & 80’s who did not get money playing football”
“A strong players union with a little bit of fund from Federal government will go a long way to help” he added.
