Thursday 6 June 2013

Babafemi slams NABF on selecting coaches

A veteran boxing coach, Femi Babafemi, has said that the depth of boxing programme packaged by Lagos State is the only hope for the sport in the country, as he accused the Nigeria Amateur Boxing federation (NABF) of bias in selecting coaches for national assignments.
He said in an interview with Newswatch Sports that the project has been vigorously pursued by the organisers and many talents discovered are being harnessed to make greater impact in future Championships.
“The hope of reviving the dying sport rests on Lagos. There is no overemphasising it. It is the reality on ground and it’s only those that want to make unnecessary noise in order to defend the money their State governments have been allotting to them that will fault this authentic claim,” he pointed out.
According to him, apart from the fact that there are modern facilitates scattered all over Lagos State for intending boxers to train with, the bulk of talents are concentrated here also and  have been enjoying the services of coaches in the State too.
He pointed out that there are also many boxing clubs doing well in the State which also feed the Lagos State Amateur Boxing Association (LASABA) with their products for further refining, which has further put the State on top of the game.
“The State also organises competitions to ensure the pugilists are in top shape. The sport has also witnessed tremendous rise. It is undisputable that Lagos State has won majority of the national championships.  Other States come around to lure boxers to compete for them during National Sports Festivals out of the surplus that Lagos state left out,” he revealed.  
 Babafemi posited that the State has not been getting fair deal from the Nigeria Amateur Boxing Federation (NABF) in terms of coaches invited for national assignments. He challenged the federation to explain to Nigerians its role in assigning coaches for national engagements. 
He said there was a time the State had seven boxers out of eight that qualified, adding that it was sad that he was excluded from the coaches invited to the national camp despite the fact that he exceeded NABF criteria for inviting coaches.  He added that no explanation was given for that and it was one of the steps the NABF took against Lagos State.   
He reasoned that a State with the highest number of champions at a National Sports Festival ought to have its coach invited to the national camp to assist the NABF chief coach ahead of any international contest.

No comments:

Post a Comment