Courtesy: The Nation On Line


13th World University Futsal Tournament 12 students to represent Nigeria

12/07/2012

The maiden edition of the Nigeria University Games (NUGA) and the Five-Aside-Football (Futsal Championship) will be the medium through which the country’s athletes for the 13th World University Futsal Tournament will be selected.

Harry Balogun, the competitions’ organiser told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday at the National Institute of Sports secretariat, (NIsport) Lagos that 12 athletes would be selected. The University of Minho will host the World University Futsal Championship, scheduled to hold from Aug .18 to Aug. 25 in Braga, Portugal

“The idea of organising this championship is to create awareness for Five-A-Side in Nigeria. It is also going to be used as the selection for players that will represent the country at the World University Games because we do not have a university team yet. Before we attend the competition, there is need to organise the national event because the team would be drawn from the participating universities and NUGA has embraced the idea,’’ he said.

NAN reports that no fewer than eight universities registered for the NUGA Futsal championship which was scheduled to hold between July 10 and July 11.

Balogun noted that most of the world greatest players started with Futsal, adding that it helped to build stamina and allowed players to think faster because of the size of the pitch.

“The Ronaldinhos, the Peles’ of this world started with Futsal because it makes you think faster and it builds the mind because it is a very fast game,’’ he said.

Meanwhile Bola Orodele, the Secretary of NUGA, said that the body deemed it necessary to organise the championship to allow the country to participate at the World championship.

Orodele said the height for any international competition is from the tertiary institutions, saying, “If do not give them the opportunity while in school, when will they showcase their talent,’’.

He pointed out that thirteen universities registered for the competition but only eight universities were participating in the event.

“We believe that the country’s universities abounds with talents who are still young It is also necessary to engage them in meaningful activities and that is sports. Some students have the skills and we do not want them to waste their talents, so we are going to be organising the championship yearly to discover more talents for the sport,’’ he said.

The University of Ibadan, Adekunle Ajasin University, Ahmadu Bello University and Nassarawa State University are in Group A.

While the Niger Delta University, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Federal University of Petroleum Resources and Bayero University are in Group B.

NAN reports that 16 countries will participate in the Futsal World Championships in Braga, Portugal and the Nigeria team is in Group C alongside Russia, Czech Republic and China.




Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com