It was a celebration of football par excellence yesterday at the Rwang Pam Township Stadium as this present Plateau State Football Association, headed by Hon. Dr. Suleiman Yahaya Kwande clocked one year in office.
In an elaborate chat with journalists immediately after the very entertaining encounters that involved Sports Writers Association of Nigeria, Plateau State Chapter, Plateau State Referees Council, Plateau State, Plateau State Coaches Association, Plateau State Sports Council and the celebrant themselves, Plateau State Football Association, the PFA Chairman, Hon Dr Suleiman Yahaya Kwande goes thus: “First and foremost, I must thank God Almighty for the football journey so far. The Executive Governor of Plateau State, Barr. Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang for giving the association a conducive environment to operate. The Commissioner For Sports, Sports Director and all the stakeholders on the Plateau.”
Kwande continues: “The reason for inviting Plateau State Coaches Association, Plateau State Referees Council, Plateau State All Stars, Sports Writers Association Of Nigeria and the Plateau State Sports Council is to create that good synergy needed for that instant positive result we are gunning for. This bond is very important. We don’t want any in-house hitches that will affect Plateau United FC smooth sail to the continent and Mighty Jets FC smooth sail to the Premier League.”
He goes further with their plans after one year in office: “The very big burden in my heart now is to organize a very good and professional Coaching course for all our Coaches on the Plateau. I want a Coaching Course that will be taken down to other local government areas other than the capital city, which is Jos. We have very good players at the grassroots level but the unfortunate thing is that they don’t get themselves upgraded to get abreast with the basic technical and tactical standards required to impact on these boys to make them better players. And the painful thing is that most of these coaches don’t see it as very important, hence, they don’t improve themselves. Since they don’t want to come out, we are taking the coaching course to their domain. Another project we will be embarking on is women’s football. Although, we’ve started work in that direction already by using the International Women’s Day celebration to bring back female football in the State. We also had the women’s version of the women’s FA Cup. Plans are already in top gear to have the women’s version of the Governor’s Cup which will be known as the First Lady’s Cup. We envisage a situation where we will have women’s football events that will be played by female, coached by female and officiated by female.”
“We all know that football promotes Peace and unity, but we are going a step further to even unite the security agencies and create that synergy needed for better operation by organizing the Security Agencies Football Tournament that will be starting soonest.”
“We’ve also encouraged different tribes to play tournaments amongst themselves. The Yorubas just finished theirs(Oduduwa League), the Igbos own is still on. The Gamji Cup is starting. We’ve also concluded plans to have the Plateau State Traditional Rulers Cup that will encompass all the tribes and clans on the Plateau. Our mandate is to take the game to the grassroots, I mean the remotest of places in the State.”
“We are also starting the tricycle football tournament, Tertiary Institutions League and many others.”
A visibly happy and fulfilled Suleiman Yahaya Kwande, concludes: “This celebration, which we plan to do yearly is not only to bring synergy and unity, but to also help us access ourselves annually. The journalists are helping us in that aspect with vox pox conducted with the gathering here and everybody bearing their minds and voicing out on how far we’ve gone over the past 12 months as a body.”
Here are the results of all the three matches played yesterday to mark the one year in office of the Plateau State Football Association:
Plateau State Coaches Association 1 – 0 Plateau State Referees Council
Plateau State All Stars 2-1 Plateau State Sports Writers Association of Nigeria
Plateau State Football Association 0 – 1 Plateau State Sports Council
