NFF Commends Sports Solutions’ Initiative On Beach Soccer

The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, has praised the initiative of Abuja-based Sports Solutions Limited for hosting a beach soccer clinic for young ones within the Federal Capital Territory during the Easter period.

Tagged ‘FCT Beach Soccer Clinic’, the project attracted over 50 school children within the Federal Capital and saw Nigeria’s FIFA Beach Soccer Instructor, Sunday Okayi impressing the kids with tips and lessons on the game.

Chairman of the NFF Technical Committee, Barrister Chris Green, said at the weekend that initiatives such as that of Sports Solutions are needed to powerfully drive football development in the country.

“What Architect Abubakar and his Sports Solutions company have done was commendable. They picked a brand of the football sector in which Nigeria has huge potential and decided to drive it from the level of school pupils.

“Beach Soccer is an area we have demonstrated ability and if we have our kids getting the message from their young age, we definitely will be able to produce world beaters in no distant future”, said Green.

The NFF fully endorsed and supported the two-day programme, which was held at the FIFA Technical Centre, National Stadium and the Jabi Lake, with the NFF President, Alhaji Aminu Maigari delivering a welcome remarks, in which he applauded the project and enumerated Nigeria’s several impressive showings at African Beach Soccer Championships and FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup competitions in the past six years.

Chairman of Sports Solutions, Architect Abdullahi Shime Abubakar, who has been involved in designing some of the best football stadia in the land, said he was proud to pioneer the project in an emerging area of the football sector.

“It is never easy to pioneer anything, but I am delighted at the happy conclusion of the programme. What we have set out to do is to identify an area where Nigeria has comparative advantage and plough hard into it, through encouraging our children from a young age.

“The next stage would be to bring together Games-masters of schools, who would learn a lot and then go back and spread the message in the schools.

“Beach Soccer is an area Nigeria has comparative advantage because of our long coastal lines, which are yet to be tapped.

“Also, beach soccer is cheap to play. You can build a beach soccer stadium with just N5 million, while you need hundreds of millions to build even a mini-stadium for regular football”, explained Abubakar.

Nigeria won the African Beach Soccer Championship in 2007 and 2009, and reached the quarter finals of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Ravenna, Italy last year, coming close to eliminating four-time world champions Brazil.

In December 2011, the Supersand Eagles flogged all-comers, namely Brazil, England and South Africa, to win the first international beach soccer competition held on Nigerian soil – COPA Lagos.