Niger Tornadoes FC’ FANS CLUB have conferred an award of excellence on the chairman of Niger Tornadoes Football Club Minna, Hon. Adamu Aliyu Mohammed.
In an event that took place at the Niger Tornadoes FC Secretariat, Ministry Of Youth & Sports Development, the Technical Adviser of the State Darling Team, Abubakar Bala Mohammed also received an award alongside four players, for their outstanding performance last season.
According to the Organizers of the award ceremony (Fans Club) the essence of rewarding the outstanding performers, is to encourage other players to emulate their colleagues to always give their all when called upon.
The FANS CLUB which was created and registered in 2016 with the aim of volunteering to give the much needed support to the team, had Amos Silas Jako as her first Chairman, while the current chairman is Abubakar Adamu Layi.
Aside organizing an award ceremony, the FANS CLUB have always made it a duty to vote and recognize best player of the team on a weekly bases during league matches.
The Award for Excellent Performance were presented to Niger Tornadoes Chairman Hon. Adamu Aliyu, Technical Adviser, Abubakar Bala Mohammed, Teams Captains, Ifeanyi Okoye and Sunday Akinmoladun, the other two players who bagged awards are; Lukman Mohammed and Daniel Edeh who had since departed the club and pitched tent with a foreign club.
Responding on behalf of all the recipients, Abubakar Bala Mohammed, acknowledged the important contributions of the FANS CLUB and said their efforts can not be underestimated.
While calling on the need to sustain the tempo and maintain a greater synergy between the FANS & SUPPORTER’S CLUB in the best interest of the team, Coach Bala urged them to spread their tentacles in the area of seeking partnership and sponsorship as obtainable in the most developed places.
He stressed that the issue of sponsorship which is generally lacking among Nigeria club sides must be tackled so as reduce over dependence on government.
He said, “For instance, most clubs including Tornadoes do not have economic right of players, losing huge amount of money to agents, anytime players secure deals outside the shores of the country. In our case when Daniel Edeh secured his move away, his agent took the lion share of the whole transfer fees, as a result of inability to pay his clearance fees outrightly, so a lot need to be done in this aspect”.
Thereafter, Coach Bala made a pledge of N100,000 to the FANS CLUB.
Also speaking, the special guest of honor at the event, APC State Publicity Secretary Hon. Labaran Sarkin Kaji, while reiterating that Niger Tornadoes is one of the famous club sides in Nigeria with supporters spread within and outside the State, said, football is loved and cherished by many but performed by the youth, hence the need for government to give the sector a special attention. He said football if well harnessed can boost the economy of a state, he commended the current chairman of the team, Hon. Adamu Aliyu for doing so well in terms of piloting the affairs of the team and used the occasion call on the Coaches to place special consideration on home based players.
