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Handball: 'Return Senior Teams or Kill Game' By Ayodeji Fashikun The Handball Federation of Nigeria (HFN) has come under the heavy hammer of the former coach of Nigeria's leading club, Grasshoppers of Owerri, Mr. Ephraim Chukwuemeka for alienating Nigeria from the comity of nations for a further six years. Chukwuemeka, an authority in the game, being foundation coach of Abia Valiants spoke exclusively to THISDAYSports in Lagos yesterday, said "the decision to banish the senior national teams is not the best for the nation if placed on the scale of comparison." The Abia State Director of Sports added, "the young ones would have no seniors to model after. This would put them some light years behind their contemporaries in other nations." The respected coach added: "The best thing is to allow the two to go together. Cancelling senior teams is a decision not informed by deep technical implications. For six to seven years from now, it means we will not be attending senior competitions. Countries are rated based on the performance of their senior teams. That means for so long we would be out of the international rating system." He accused governments in the nation of neglecting other sports for football causing the dwindling fortunes of the nation in other sports disciplines. Most of the clubs in Nigeria today like Grasshoppers and Niger United are all government owned clubs. "Government emphasis on football is affecting fortunes of the other games. For handball, the other side of the matter is that, the federation has no good programme. "Our league is not the best. It's played once and after that you have to wait until another one year to play another championship. What we need is a league where we have about 12 teams playing home and away basis amidst other competitions. This builds the athletes into better shape for international competitions. "Were congregating athletes for a week in a centre as it is done now the ideal, we would have been the best. There is need for more competitions for all the age categories especially the senior ones." Who Are We ? | About THISDAYOnLine.com | THISDAY People | Contact Us © Copyright 2000 Leaders & Company Limited

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