The President of Gee-Lec International Football Academy, Izzul-Arab Garba Ibrahim has decried the heavy set back caused by lack of attention given to the provision of sporting facilities in Nigeria.
Arab-Gee as he’s also fondly called believes no country can rival Nigeria talent wise especially in football but lack of facilities has been one of the major hindrance in making the Country rule the world.
According to Izzul-Arab, “There are a lot of challenges facing sports development in Nigeria which include finances, but one of the major factors is lack of facilities. Take for example in Jos, we can only boast of only the New Jos Stadium where good football can be played and we are talking about thousands of grassroots club sides.
He went further to say it is not any better at the National level, “We are even facing the same facility challenge at the national level whereby due to lack of enough training pitches, all the National teams currently use only the FIFA Goal Project, from the Under-17 male and female, under-20, under-23 and some other teams in Abuja. And this is applicable to all the States in Nigeria. I don’t see how you can see or get the best from these players when there are no structures on ground for these talents to be harnessed.”
Izzul-Arab Garba Ibrahim also called on Politicians to come out and support grassroots club owners by providing facilities even from the grassroots level where they are voted in to lead. He challenged foreign based players that have benefited from the system to also give back to where they are coming from, citing Super Eagles captain, Ahmed Musa, as a good example who built a sports edifice in both Kano and Kaduna States.