The Nigeria Volleyball Federation (NVBF) has announced that the proposed Volleyball Premier League is now scheduled to hold from November 1-10 in Kaduna.
The President of the Federation, Engineer Musa Nimrod told sport247.ng that the league suffered several postponements earlier due to the hosting of the U21 Africa Men’s Nation’s Cup in Abuja.
Nimrod further explained that the league could not hold this October due to the preliminaries of team games ahead of the 2018 National Sports Festival in Abuja later next month.
He revealed that the league was moved to Kaduna by the League Management Committee due to lack of sponsor and to reduce the cost of running the league.
He said, “The Umaru Musa Yar’adua Indoor Sports Hall will witness within two weeks of uninterrupted volleyball for both men and women.
“The Volleyball Federation is yet to get a sponsor for the league. The Premier League competition had to be moved out from Abuja to Kaduna by the League Management Committee because of cost reduction.
“We have put plans on the way and all things being equal, the league should be back next month. We never planned to postpone the league but Nigeria had to host the rest of Africa in the men’s U21 Championship which was commended by the Confederation of Africa Volleyball, the Zonal eliminations of the National Sports Festival in October amongst others.”
He further said, “We have recorded resounding progresses but there are still much to be done. I’m aware most teams are waiting for the Premier League to resume and the organisers promise not to let the expectations of the people down.
“We must stop focusing 100 per cent on the senior national teams which end up putting pressure on the team. We want to increase the interests of Nigerians in the league than the national teams.”
The NVBF boss stressed that the league will impact positively on the development of the sport at the grassroots level across the country.
“Getting the league right would mean total transformation of Nigerian volleyball from the grassroots to the national level. The league will drive all volleyball developments in this country. If we fix league, it will change many things because it is an economy on its own.
“Our target is to bring over 2, 000 Nigerians to the stadium in everyday. Nigerians are gradually beginning to love the game volleyball again after our successful performance at the Africa Youth Games, the U20 girls and the recently concluded U21 Men’s Africa Championships.
“The next thing we have to do is to put smiles on the faces and put something in their pockets.”
