FCT FA Visits Abaji, Gwagwalada Area Councils For Football Development
The Board, FCT Football Association on Tuesday visited Chairmen of Abaji and Gwagwalada Area Councils for football development. The delegation led by the first Vice-Chairman, Saliu Kolo started off visit to the six FCT Area Councils from Abaji.
Kolo described the visit as a wake-up call to the chairmen of the Area Councils and as a reminder to start programmes to discover budding talents scattered across the FCT.
The six FCT FA Board members started by paying a courtesy visit to Abaji Area Council chairman, Alh. Abdulrahman Ajiya who embraced the developmental programmes of the Association and channel the way forward for grassroots football development in FCT.
The Chairman, represented by the Executive Secretary, Abaji Area Council, Alh. Ahmed Sulaiman welcomes and thanked the football governing body for coming to develop the game of football in their Area Council.
He admitted that Abaji is lagging behind and attributed the reason to lack of adequate information and however believed that they are ready to supports the FA whenever they want to implement their programmes on football development in the Council.
He is confident that at the end of such programmes Abaji will produce a world class player who will be known all over the world because according to him there are many raw talents scattered all over the Area Council.
In his word, “We are happy to receive the Board members of the FCT FA, particularly for coming with the aim of developing football in our Area Council. We are lagging behind in football development, we want our coaches and players to be exposed and this is the right time to do that.
“Please, we really need you and we are ready to support your Association whenever you are ready to implement the your football development programs. We have many talented players that are yet to be discovered and we will rely on your experience to get them to stardom.”
On his part, FCT FA First Vice-Chairman, Hon. Saliu Kolo, described Abaji as a hub of football talents and was confident that many budding young talents will be discovered by the end of the Association’s developmental programmes. He said the FA will roll out many programmes for coaches and footballers which will expose them to the new techniques and rules of the game.
The FCT FA Secretary, Haruna Usman Ilerika, said that the discovered players will have the opportunity of taking advantage of being included in the developmental programs provided by the association which is aimed at exposing them to the world.
The Board as part of the schedule also visited Gwagwalada Area Council to sensitize the chairman on their plans to discover talented players hidden in the Council and place them on the platform that will expose them to the world.
Hon. Kolo started by appreciating the Area Council for giving the Board the opportunity to visit and notify about their developmental programmes despite short notice adding that the visit is to bring the experience of the national team coaches in the Association to develop footballers and coaches in Gwagwalada.
He said with the help of the coaches, a team will be raised in Gwagwalada and will also orgainse seminars for coaches in Gwagwalada Area Council.
He urged the council to liaise and support with the Coaches Association for grassroots football development.
The Vice Chairman of the Area Council, Hon Kasim Mohammed who represented Chairman, welcomes the FA Board members, said that the game of football creates employment and wealth, he also emphasized that sports creates social vices, and promised that the Council is ready to support the development of the game.
He however, identified the challenges faced by the council, he said there are many abandoned sports center projects adding unavailability of comprehensive sports center in Gwagwalada makes it difficult for the Council to come up with sports development programs.
He then revealed that the council is working on getting individuals and cooperate entities to help them complete all the uncompleted sports centers which are multi-million naira project.
By Betty Akota