This commitment was further proven by His Excellency, Captain Idris Wada during his presentation of budget for the year 2015 as he noted that both the state football clubs, Kogi United and Confluence Queens have actually made the state proud in their just concluded season under the control of Mallam Abdul Adama, and would continue to build on the successes achieved.
The governor added that sports would be given much attention as he asserted that its a sector where a lot of people especially the youth would be developed and of course serve as means of business venture to the state.
According to Governor Wada, he said "the administration has been preoccupied with the overall promotion of sports and sporting activities because we believe it is a major contributor to positive youth engagement and employment in the State," Governor Wada begins.
"During the 2015 fiscal year, our policy thrust will focus on identifying more budding athletes so that we can nurture them to stardom through the development of sporting skills and modern equipment, we will sustain the gains made by Kogi United and Confluence Queens Football Clubs, and encourage our athletes to participate in international competitions," he concluded.
While echoing the words of the governor, chairman of both clubs, Mallam Abdul Adama disclosed that preparation is in top gear towards actualization of the target for 2015 football season.
For Kogi United, he said the club have contracted a former Chelsea trainer, Yomi Godwin Elijah as the Head Coach of the Wada Boys. And he will work with the former Nigeria international, Abdul Sule who is the Technical Adviser to achieve the goals for the season which is a promotion to the apex league in the country, the Nigeria Professional Football League, NPFL.
Last season for Kogi United and Confluence Queens was tagged as the "season of restructuring and repositioning" under the management led by Mallam Abdul Adama as the chairman.
That target was achieved as both clubs witnessed an impressive turn around in status, attractive style of play, players' welfare package, foreign and indigenous sponsorship and lots more.
With these commendable combination of technical crew, renewed commitment of the management members and timely intervention and support from the government, it is expected that a new target will be set to encourage focus and concentration for both clubs to actualize that target.
In this view, chairman of the Confluence state clubs, Mallam Abdul Adama has tagged it the "season of consolidation".
Mallam Adama while disclosing this in Lokoja noted the new target was chosen to take Kogi United and Confluence Queens to the next level of relevance and recognition.
"After making such a miraculous
recovery to become one of the teams to be reckoned with in 2014 that make us finished seventh in the last NNL, we felt that a new direction has to be taken for us to achieve our set goals, so far we have set the standard in the last season, I think the next thing is to build on that success, that's why its called season of consolidation.
"We have re-jig our technical department to make this a reality and we are not going to look back on it, all we need is to make good use of wonderful resources we have, the team is already there, we will only build on it with few fresh legs and we believe we will achieve great success at the end of this season.
He added that Confluence Queens who made history last season as one of the first clubs to compete at the maiden Women Premier League in Nigeria where they finished fifth will consolidate on their last season's performance in the league and also strive to go a step further in the Federation Cup.
Adama, who is also the Special Adviser on Public Private Partnership, PPP to Governor Wada commended the state government's continued support to the teams under the sports loving governor, Captain Idris Ichalla Wada for the prompt payment of salaries and allowances to the players and for adequate accommodation for the club players and coaches just as he promised that the two state teams under his watch will not disappoint the government.
He however solicited continuous support and encouragement from stakeholders to put Kogi State in front burners of football loving states in the country.
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