President and Chairman of Right Football Academy in Lagos, Suleiman Hamidi has stated that Most Nigerian teams and Owners of Club sides don’t really know the true meaning of football academies.
In an Interview with Sports247 when being asked about academies in Nigeria, the Chairman stated that there is a lot of issues affecting our football academies, as a lot of things are not being done right. He admitted that a lot of academies in Nigeria are not truly academies but just football club sides, because football academies should always feature players according to the player’s age, and not overaged players, as he admitted that this must be done properly for our football academy to grow and develop.
“There is a lot of things that we are not doing right. We don’t know the meaning of football academies in Nigeria. A lot of Academies that we are seeing here in Nigeria are not academies. Because building an academy involves a lot of things that you need to do. Firstly, you have to start from U8, and it must definitely be U8, not bringing 12 years Old. Some people would bring 12 years Old to come and play in a U8 academy, which shouldn’t be so”.
“When a child starts from 8 years, it is basically football, teaching the child the basics, nothing like fitness and a lot of diets should be recommended for the player”.
“There is a lot of ingredients used to help the players in the academy, so as to help enhance the players’ growth and development. Like in my own academy, (Right Football Academy in Lagos), I have a doctor, a physio, and a psychologist to help the players’ growth. Every department of my academy always lectures us on their own aspect”. I also have different coaches for my various academies, they are like 6 of them. I have the U8 Coach, U13 Coaches, U 17 Coaches. But most clubs in Nigeria don’t know the difference between forming a club side and having an academy, everyone that has a club will tell you that he also runs an academy,” he lamented.
