Postponement of Edo 2020, A Setback - Acting Director, FCT Sports Dept

  Postponement of Edo 2020, A Setback - Acting Director, FCT Sports Dept By Niyi Busari Acting Director, Federal Capital Territory, Sports Department, Luka Istifanus, said that the postponement of National Sports Festival on three different occasions will affect the performances of athletes when it finally kicks off on February 14, BSNSports.com.ng reports. Istifanus while speaking in Abuja added that it has affected the States' plans and budget for the championship. "The postponement has demoralised the athletes, remember this 20th edition of national sports festival was to be held in the month of March, 2020 which was postponed three days to our takeoff and States including FCT have invested a lot in preparing their athletes for the competition. "For instance, all our kits have been branded 'Edo 2020' if the Games is shifted to may be Calabar, can we use the branded kits in another state? Can government take financial responsibility of that? So, honestly speaking, it has demoralised us. From the government that is even sponsoring the festival, to the administrators down to the athletes, the three times postponement have dealt a big blow on us." He lamented that due to the postponement, some of the athletes trained by FCT have left to represent other states in search of a greener pasture. "Because of this, athletes that we trained from the grassroots that are gold medalist bound athletes are now moving to other states who can offer cash for their services." "At the last quarter of 2020, the signals we were receiving from Covid-19 made us celebrate return of sports. So, we started our normal sporting activities from grassroots level to the city center. We have toured the 62 councils in FCT to intimate them that Covid-19 is real and we need to study what is on the ground before sports take off fully in FCT. "Before then, we have two weeks open camp across the six Area Councils in preparation for the 20th National Sports Festival which was billed to start on 3rd December, 2020. And we have started good preparation for the tournament before it was postponed again. We have started very well, at the beginning of the year, we thought we will open camp ahead of time in preparation for the kick off of Edo 2020 which suppose to start on February 14. But the second wave of Covid-19 may affect the camping. In preventing against the spread of Covid-19 in the second waves, the acting Director said that combat sports is still banned in Abuja. "The honourable minister sent a strong warning about activities that involve high volume of people at the sports centers to stop. So, we're very mindful that whatever we are going to do has to be with the limited number of people. For now, the combat sports are ruled out of it. By the time we finish equipping ourselves with Covid-19 protocols everything will come back to normal." He concluded.