NAN-S-12
J-League
By Olanrewaju Akojede
Lagos, March 29, 2017 (NAN) The Chairman, Lagos Junior League (J-League), Kamal Bayewu, on Wednesday said the management of the competition would focus more on developmental strategy which has remained the core objective of the tournament.
Bayewu made the assertion in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the body at the Sports Bar, Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos.
He said that the J-League had been fulfilling its mandate of discovering talents one of whom, he claimed, is Wilfred Ndidi currently plying his trade in Leicester FC of England.
“Lagos J-League will focus more on developmental programmes which is the primary focus of setting it up. We have seen the result of what started in 2010.
“One of the results is Wilfred Ndidi currently playing in England; we also have Victor Osihimien and others; they are direct products of the league.
“It is our joy that we produce these stars. We are throwing our doors open to the private sector to join either as a stakeholder or teams playing in the league.
“We want them to register to play in the J-League as it is now open to all and not for the local governments alone,’’ he said.
Bayewu said that J-League had been rebranded in a way to attract investors but added that the focus would not be on the financial reward but its achievements.
“The message to all stakeholders is to let them know that the J-League is still very much around and stronger as it has been rebranded to accommodate private investors.
“We have worked to make it more economically viable and attractive to investors. However, we will still maintain the old format of playing the league.
“The old format includes the premiership, the league 1 and league II. We will have 20 teams in each league which will include the 57 local governments and council development areas.
“In a case where we have spillover, we will create another league within the system,’’ he said.
The Technical Director of Lagos J-League, Tunde Disu, told NAN that the AGM had proposed that the age of the participating footballers should be pruned to U-17 from U-21.
“We have tabled a proposal to the government that the age limit should be 17 as against 21 years.
“The argument is that footballers in the school age can be monitored with their register in the school thereby we can curtail age cheating.
“We also raised the issue of funding in which we said that the allocation for the J-League should be jacked up from N100 million to N300 million.
“The initial N100 million may not be realistic again because of the economic reality. The market is not the same as last year’s budget,’’ he said. (NAN)
KOJE/PDE
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(Editing by Peter Ejiofor)