Kaduna Queens FC were faced with a torrid end to their campaign at the Nigerian Women Football League (NWFL) Championship play-offs in Calabar, as they lost their final match 6-1 to Wazbak International and faced being forcefully ejected from their hotel rooms.
This was revealed exclusively to sports247.ng by the coach of the side, Uche Linus, who confessed that financial difficulties are the biggest problems he has to contend with in handling the squad.
While hailing his players for putting in the best of their efforts all through their stay in The Canaan City, Coach Linus admitted that poor welfare and inadequate feeding made them lose all their four matches.
He went on to urge government agencies, corporate bodies and philanthropists in Kaduna State to step out and support the club, considering that they picked raw talents from various localities in the capital and beyond.
Coach Linus declared, “We can see that female football is rising beyond just grassroots soccer. We have taken our players rough from the villages, but they tried their best.
“Comprehensively, they’ve not been together to play top football like this before now.
“Just a month together, and we brought them here, yet they’ve been able to play good football like this.
“If they had the chance of being here for a year or six months, they would do better than this.”
As he pondered on how he and his players would eventually return to The Crocodile City up north, the agitated coach stressed that only the presence of a steady sponsor would turn their fortune around.
“We need financial support,” Coach Linus stressed. “State government support, local government support, and philanthropist support.
“If we get that kind of support, these girls will go far. It will be very unimaginable in Kaduna State what they will do.
“It would also make Kaduna State a place to pick players and showcase them to the outside world.”
The exuberant coach then gave a review of his team’s outing at the NWFL Championship and concluded that they got the kind of results that a cash-strapped side would always receive.
“Our preparation was not adequate, and feeding of the girls was also inadequate. The girls are not feeding well because there is no financial support from anywhere.
“The hotel where we stayed consumed a lot of money. That’s why we need philanthropists, and we are begging them for money.
“Even now, it’s very difficult for us to go back to the hotel. They are likely to evict us because we don’t have money.
“That’s one of the big factors affecting us, and it’s a serious issue affecting football in Kaduna State,” Coach Linus moaned.
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