Sport
Oyo State owned female football team coming soon — Sports Commissioner
Oyo State Commissioner for Youths and Sports, Hon. Wasilat Adegoke, has disclosed that efforts are underway to establish a government owned female football team.
She said this on Friday while playing host to a delegation of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), Oyo State Chapter, who paid her a courtesy visit in her office at the State Secretariat.
The Commissioner stressed that the plan to create a female football team for Oyo State must be accomplished for the state to have a balanced football team, stating that developing sports at the grassroots is her major priority.
According to her, “Plans are in place to revive the annual football competition among secondary schools in the state, Governor’s Cup. We are also working on initiating a similar football competition for primary school pupils. This is important to catch them young.”
The Commissioner assured the visiting sports journalists that Governor Seyi Makinde would fulfill the promise he made during her swearing-in that the second phase of the remodeling of the Lekan Salami Stadium, Adamasingba will commence soon.
While calling for a synergy between her ministry and the sports writers association, the Commissioner stressed that she needed the support of Oyo SWAN to actualize her mission to foster development of sports in Oyo State.
“Sports ministry and journalists are partners in progress. As sports administrators we can’t do without SWAN. It’s very important that we should involve the body in our policy making and implementation. Not involving SWAN is engaging in an exercise in futility. Sports events without media coverage is like doing nothing”, Adegoke said.
The Chairman of the Oyo State Chapter of SWAN, Mr. Niyi Alebiosu, in his remarks, thanked the Commissioner for opening the doors of her office to the association, charging her to not only focus on development of sports at the grassroots but also devise ways to retain the athletes breed in the state.
“It is disheartening to watch other states come to Oyo to poach our athletes because we don’t have a solid follow up programs and satisfactory rewarding system for our athletes”, he said.
Alebiosu also urged the Commissioner to encourage Governor Makinde, to fast track the completion of the Lekan Salami Stadium, Adamasingba, stating that it is capable of making Oyo sytate a sports hub by opening doors for the state to host lots of sporting activities.
He also requested from the Commissioner the inclusion of sports writers in all the sporting bodies and associations to be created by the sports ministry so as to allow SWAN have direct involvement in the development of sports in the state.