Lagos 2008: Organisers disappointed by NSC, NFA absence - Festival ends today

Niyi Alebiosu, Lagos - 18.03.2008

The organisers of the National School Sports Festival, Lagos 2008, have expressed worry and frowned at the absence of officials of the National Sports Commission (NSC) and the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) at the games which come to a close today at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos.

The Nigeria School Sports Federation (NSSF) had before the commencement of the festival sent invitation letters to both bodies to be part of the festival, to monitor and help discover talents among the pupils.

But Tribunesports discovered that no official of the NSC and NFA attended the event, a development that did not really go down well with NSSF officials and some of the officials for the games.

Pastor Paul Bankole, a member of the technical committee for the festival and coordinator of Brazilian Soccer Academy in Nigeria, while speaking with Tribunesports on Monday at the games secretariat did not hide his feelings as he said, “it is bad that NFA is not here where true under-aged footballers could be identified, moreso that the country is planning to host the FIFA U-17 World Championship next year. How do we (Nigeria) then discover players when the officials that are responsible for that is not around?”