The Minister of Youth and Sports Development Sunday Dare says the country must be ready to address and overcome funding constraints as she prepares to organize and participate in several domestic and international competitions in 2022.
Speaking at the 2022 Budget Defence session with the House of Representatives Committee on Sports Development in Abuja on Monday, Dare highlighted some of the challenges the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development is facing in prosecuting most of its sporting activities.
His words: “Without mincing words, participation in national, continental and International competitions which have brought much glory and goodwill to the country is capital intensive. The reality is that the Ministry has been greatly challenged in prosecuting these activities owing to its very slim overhead.
“The financial requirements of our forty two national sports federations as submitted by them cannot be completely accommodated within the overhead budget envelope of the Ministry.
“The activities of these federations are instrumental to our participation in International sporting events. These huge financial requirements further underscore the need to accord the Ministry enhanced funding,” Dare pleaded.
Quizzed by a lawmaker about the plans of the Ministry to help revive domestic football and the Nigeria Professional Football League(NPFL), Dare said it would require collective action from every stakeholder to turn things around for the better.
“We all have to get involved and even get some legislation to back us up before we can begin to see changes,” he opened up, “The structure of our clubs needs to change if we want to see fans fill up the stands at our stadia to watch our domestic games. Most of our clubs are government owned and professionalism is not a priority.
