AN official of the Nigeria Volleyball Federation (NVBF), Adeshina Abioye, on Monday said Nigeria would host the African U-19 Volleyball Championship to compliment the federation’s efforts at discovering new talents.

Abioye, who is the Coordinator of the Federal Zone of the 2018 NVBF National League, said the championship is billed to hold in August in Abuja.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the league’s Federal Zone is based in Ilorin and it is for volleyball clubs belonging to military and para-military bodies.

Abioye said the just-concluded league came at a right time for the federation to discover new talents who would be useful for the championship.

“We kept our eyes opened throughout the tournament to see if we can get young players who can fit in in the national under-19 team set-up.

“Luckily, no fewer than 10 young players below the age of 19 were identified and selected for camping ahead of the African U-19 Championship.

“Of course, we couldn’t have got anything less, because this (Ilorin) is a special zone and the four leading state teams and clubs are in this zone

“In view of this, the league has lived up to the expectations in terms of quality of the competition among the clubs and the players.

“But we are also looking at other zones for more players to be invited for camping for the championship,’’ he said.

The NVBF official said the main objective of the league was to develop the sport across the country.

He said the current board of the federation resolved to revive the old way of discovering talents in Nigeria.

“The board has resolved to go the old way of talent discovery and the best way of achieving that is through regular competitions at all levels,’’ Abioye said.

He, however, said finance had always been the challenge confronting the federation in carrying out its programmes.

“Individual and corporate bodies are not showing enough interest in the sponsorship of volleyball programmes and government alone cannot fund sports development.

“We are therefore calling on individuals and corporate bodies to come to our aid. We have the talents, but we need regular competitions to develop them to attain international standard,’’ he said. (NAN)

– Apr. 16, 2018 @ 18:06 GMT

AE