Chairman of Benue State Football Association, Chief Dr Paul Edeh Esq has applauded organisers of the just concluded maiden Newstap/SWAN Five Star Sports Award describing it as a worthy initiative even as he dedicated his award to the country’s women football.
Speaking shortly after receiving his award, Edeh noted that the organisers must be commended for their sound and unbiased judgement in selecting the awardees who he said have done a lot in the development of the country’s sports ecosystem positing that the award will encourage him to do more for the sports sector.
While dedicating his award to the country’s women football, Edeh, who is the only founder of two women clubs in Nigeria – Naija Ratels and Benue Queens, explained that the dedication became necessary inorder to encourage the country’s women players to continue to do more for the round leather game.
“I’m dedicating this award to our women footballers to enable them do more in the game. They’ve conquered Africa many times and also did well at the world level and I want them to maintain the momentum,” he stressed.
He however expressed surprise that women are not showing interest in setting up women club sides in the country and charged them to start thinking towards that direction.
“It’s surprising that it’s men that are setting up women football club sides in the country while our well to do women are sitting on the bench watching.
“I challenge our women folk to start thinking of floating women teams as that will go a long way in not only creating jobs for the girl child but help in improving the game,” he concluded.
