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At the end of the bet9ja Royal Cup 2019 draws and capacity building workshop, held at Wellington Hotel, Warri, Texas Academy and Royal FC, both from Asaba, emerged as the two clubs that will be engaging each other at the Opening game of this year competition.
The game that will kickoff by 3:00pm, shall take place at the Government Model School football pitch, Asaba, Delta state capital city.
Speaking exclusively with “The South Daily” before the draws were held, the National Training Officer, Nigeria Football Coaches Association, NFCA, who is also the Director of Coaching Education, Football Coaches Association of Africa Nations, FCAAN, Henry Abiodun, urged coaches to continually avail themselves to learning new methodologies in the profession.
“Coaches must continue to learn, they must understand that knowledge is power, so whenever they find the opportunity and platform where they can increase their knowledge they should make sure they rush down to grab it”
“Seminars, workshop like this, coaches courses, they should rush there because the game continue to change, the game imposes different challenges and if you don’t update your knowledge then you are left out”
Responding to challenges faced in the coaching profession, Abiodun advises coaches to begin small.
“We face numerous challenges, but among them is how do I get a job. Okay? And this is what I say, Not every coach will have a job at the premier level, not every coach will have job at the National level, but see yourselves as a teacher, we have teachers that are not employ by the government, but because you are teacher you can teach kids in Home schools, Home Lessons, and you still get paid”
“So if you really have the knowledge you can train about three players at a time and you still coaching, though I know is not common in Nigeria. Even in the western world we have individual training sessions, we have group training session, so in essence what I am saying is, quit complaining that I don’t have a job and start small, you will end building academy that will benefit all tomorrow”
Also speaking with “The South Daily” a licensee football intermediary, Eddie Ogbemudia, amazingly described the coaching profession as a job with a lot of earnings, if proper structure and documentation is in place.
He further ascribed football to be a major business that is not solely about running on the pitch, but also entails huge financial gains.
“We have dishonest persons in this business, they tend to be very fast in order to make money for themselves on the detriment of others. I have met a lot of them, and the coaches also have their own side of the story, so for me there is need to build trust in these players so they can in return have confidence in them(coaches), so when anything comes up they will be carried along”
“There are a lot of persons that wants reap where they never sowed. You see these players, they will be in a team that discovered them at a very tender age to their present age, and somebody from nowhere will just come and cajole them into signing funny contracts, we have a lot of players abandoned in the Europe, Asian countries with nothing to write home about, so we need to build a level of trust so you(coaches) so that have honest person around you”
