By; Uba Ibrahim, Kaduna.
After a two-day meeting which dissected the problems of handball in Nigeria, the Premier League coaches of the game have advised their federation to adhere strictly to the agreement reached with the sponsor, Banjoko and Gas Limited in order to forestall any problem that may arise so as not to loose the sponsorship.
Reacting to the letter sent out to handball teams by the Secretary of Handball Federation of Nigeria inviting them for Open Handball Premier League, the President of the Handball Coaches Association, Chief John Emmanuel Jatau, the Garkuwan Baju, said many things are observed before teams were considered for promotion into the premier league such as competitions that kept them active with the Centre for Excellence Sports Development, Abuja.
“Now that a sponsor has been gotten by the leadership of the Handball Federation of Nigeria, it is ideal that record of Premier League should be used for this year’s league and not qualifying premier league because the clubs did not do anything wrong to be demoted to division one by inviting the same teams in the premier for another open qualification.”
Chief Jatau said if the HFN Secretary and some board members were not in the board when the premier league started, that does not mean the record should be changed. Adding that no sponsor who had prepare to sponsor the highest competition in a country would accept spending his resources on a lower championship.
Speaking also to sports journalists at the end of their meeting at Tomaso Kings Palace Hotel in Kaduna, Coach Bala M.K. Muhammed of the Federal Road Safety Commission said, though the Coaches have commended the President of the Handball Federation of Nigeria (HFN), Alhaji Yusuf Dauda for having secured sponsorship for the 2016 league, he cautioned that the federation should not do anything contrary to the agreement reached with the sponsor.
Bala added that “since there was an initial approval by the federation and sponsor, that should be adhered to”.
He also advised the federation to look for other sponsor (s) for division one teams which would be a platform for qualification into the handball premier league of 2017.
Bala stated that the Handball Coaches of Premier League have agreed that name of the competition still remains the 2016 Handball Premier League of Nigeria.
