Joe Effiong, Uyo
Former Flying Eagles’ coach, John Obuh has called on sponsors to focus more on grassroots football competition to discover the gifted players begging for opportunities to expose their skills to the world.
Obuh, now the chief coach of Akwa United FC said yesterday during the draws for the maiden Uyo Champions League held at Uyo Township Stadium that for the State FA to team up with the organizers, Bet9ja and Firstline Sports to organize the championship shown their interest in the growth of grassroots players.
“As a coach I always want organizations to sponsor various competitions, where young and gifted players have the chance to
showcase their skills and clubs, coaches and others can have opportunity of witnessing the emergence of new gifted players.
“A coach will not know how gifted a player is unless he watches him or her play. This is why we need so many developmental competitions as is done in Europe.
“I wish to commend the organizers for this novel idea of bringing grassroots teams together for this champions League,” he said.
The ex-Golden Eaglets coach commended Sammy Etuk of Firstline Sports Management and his partners for showing such commitment and promised to assist as an adviser to the tournament.