Former Super Eagles’ defender, Godwin Okpara has showered encomiums on organisers of the annual 1XBet Cup and used it as a reference point for the resurgence of youth football in Nigeria.
While acknowledging the rapid descent of Nigeria’s youth football fortunes at the national team cadre, Okpara noted that 1X Bet Cup continues serving as a reference point for how talents are spotted at the community level.
He added in an exclusive interview with sports247.ng that the nation’s inability to qualify for the men’s football event at the 2024 Olympic Games in France is due to poor organisation of the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL), misplaced priorities and wrong strategies of the administrators.
Okpara, who was fondly called ‘Alan Ball’ during his playing days, further stated: “It’s a wonderful thing what 1XBet is doing.
“What they are trying to do is bring the youth together and make sure that they are busy doing something, instead of being idle on the street.
“It is a very good thing for the country as a whole and for each community in particular.”
He then spoke specifically about Nigeria’s absence at Paris 2024 and added: “I feel so sad that we are not at the Olympics. This is not what we used to see or what we used to get.
“We were used to qualifying all the time, but we now find it difficult to do so.
“For me, the difficulty we are now facing is happening from home. If you are well prepared at home, definitely you will go far with it.”
Okpara then concluded with his suggestions on the way forward, as he posited for a new focus of the NPFL and improved efforts in youth development.
He stressed: “The first thing is that we must try and organise our league better. The second is that we must come back to our youth.
“Once you work on the league, we’ll produce better players at home. That’s what we need to do for our senior national team to be good.
“We also have to start planning from the youth level. That’s what we need to do.”
Okpara added that there are already great expectations on his part from the group stage of this year’s 1X Bet Cup, as four groups of five clubs each have been outlined in the race for a total prize money of N20m.
