Abuja- Nadeem Bhatti, an International Hockey Federation (FIH) coach, on Wednesday said lack of sports facilities in Nigeria was a major setback to sports development at all levels.
Bhatti told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that Nigeria has lots of hockey game talents which have not been developed due to lack of facilities.
“Nigeria has very good talents for the game. The players have good body structure and good mental fitness, but the problem is that there are limited astro-turf pitches for the game.
“To my knowledge, there are only four of these in the country, and out of these, one is not operational because of internal factors. So, only a few of them are in use,’’ he said.
The Pakistani said there was the need for the construction of more astro-turf pitches in the country to help in the development of the game.
Bhatti, who is running the solidarity exchange programme between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC), said he was focussing developing the game at the grassroots.
“My focus is to start at the development level, such as the junior level, the under-14 and under-15, so that we can develop players from the very onset.
“Players at that level will start learning modern techniques which are required in today’s hockey,’’ he said.
NAN reports that Bhatti would stay in Nigeria for three months as part of the NOC-IOC solidarity exchange programme to develop and support sports in various countries.