Lack Of Facilities, Bane Of Grassroot Football Development In Nigeria- Sulaiman Olansile

Lack Of Facilities, Bane Of Grassroot Football Development In Nigeria- Sulaiman Olansile

By Editor

The Proprietor of Nigeria's leading Football Academy, Olasinle Football Academy, has identified lack of facilities as the main challenges facing the development of grassroot football in Nigeria.

Olasinle Suleiman who was born and raised in Ikirun, Osun state, spoke during an interview session on a popular Nigerian Whatsapp Sports Group, Family United by Football (FUBF) stating the obvious that things needs to change if the country wants to get it right through Grassroot football.

The United State of America based astute football administrator noted that until adequate attention is given to the development of football facilities, the game will continue to decline at the grassroot level.

"I think we have a long way to go in the area of facilities in most part of Africa. Nigeria with a lot of football talents is lagging behind because kids lack the common football facilities to become greater than they can ever imagine," the former NRT of Nepal defender told FUBF.

"Poor training facilities, lack of transportation and many others are hindering performance of grassroots footballers. The government and the football federation needs to help in this aspect by channelling funds towards the availability of facilities. We have a long way to go."

Olansile who sponsors one of the biggest Grassroot football competition in the whole of Southwest Nigeria (Olansile Cup) and also owns one of the best football academies in the country, spoke about his plans and more.

"We are working on a lot of projects presently and very soon we shall start executing them. We are also working so hard to make sure our academy reach the standard we have here in the U.S.

"Having our own camping site, a standard Matchday pitch and training pitch is top of the agenda, we have started work on it, unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic came knocking, so we had to stop work on it. We won't rest until we make Olasinle Football Academy one of the best in the whole wide world," he concluded.