WNFF plans football houses for member states, honours Dare, Adebutu, nine others

Sunday Dare

Western Nigeria Football Forum (WNFF), the umbrella body of football associations of the South West Zone, has started the construction of football houses for members.

According to WNFF, the construction of football houses is part of programmes aimed at developing football in the region, which comprises Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo and Lagos states.   WNFF Chairman, Seyi Akinwunmi, said at the maiden Taiwo Ogunjobi U-15 Championship’s award night on Sunday in Osogbo that the zone plans to build well-rounded footballers, who apart from honing their skills to actualise their potential, would also acquire qualitative education.   Akinwunmi said the U-15 Championship was instituted to honour a late former secretary general of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Taiwo Ogunjobi, who spent a better part of his life in the service of the nation. He added: “Apart from honouring Taiwo Ogunjobi, we will also help the host Football Association, Osun, complete its football house.

“We have raised some money from among ourselves, but we are also looking for help to complete the Osun State Football house.

“We hope that next year, we will take the project to another state, which will benefit from the programme until all the states have their own football houses.”   Akinwunmi said the WNFF wants to set examples that other regions could copy for even development of the game across the country.

“We believe that Western Nigeria Football Union is big enough to take care of its development and also set a template for others to emulate.

“We hope to move from U-15 football to other levels of youth development.   “The union will also find ways to help our young footballers, who are out of job for no fault of theirs. We will also help our