The Vice President, Africa Taekwondo Federation (ATF), Nnaji Jonathan, has called for more sponsorship for the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation, to aid the body organize more events and train its athletes effectively.
The ATF boss blamed Nigeria’s poor representation at international events on the poor exposure of the nation’s athletes, which is a direct result of poor sponsorship and inadequate national competitions to grow their skills.
Speaking to NAN on Monday, Nnaji, called on corporate bodies to come together and sponsor the nation’s Taekwondo governing body to fast track sports development in the country.
“The NTF has a board that is willing to take taekwondo to the next level; the board has the willingness and the technical know-how to develop the sports in Nigeria.
“We cannot be running the game and grow it without sponsorship. The government in particular should put in place a system that will help individuals and corporate bodies to have interest in sports sponsorship. This is because without a good system, people will not be interested in funding sports.”
He further commended the NTF for successfully hosting the 2019 International Taekwondo Open, which received a good number of audacious local attendees who took part in the event sorely from their own pockets.
“All those players that came here paid from their pockets, they paid thousands of Naira to come here to compete, just to get a point.
“If you gather points, it makes you to go ahead in tournaments. Our people don’t have enough tournaments due to lack of sponsorship.’’
— Jonathan
Featured image source: Prime Post
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