Good player welfare, investment in training of coaches, strategic business partnerships with corporate bodies, and the right government policies have been identified as essential requirements for sustainable development of handball in Nigeria.
President of the Angola Handball Federation Mr Pedro Godinho made the recommendation at a Webinar/Online Conference on handball development in Nigeria which also commemorates International Handball Week.
Mr Godinho, who is also the second Vice President of the Confederation of Africa Handball (CAHB), delivered a paper on “How to develop the game of Handball in a country and making it a podium sport: The Angolan Experience”, recommended a deliberate and effective sport structure as the foundation for the success of any sport.
He mentioned that the reason handball is big in Angola is that the government created an enabling environment for sports including handball to thrive and that conscious effort was done to ensure the growth of handball in the grassroots.
He advised that until administrators in Nigeria take the sport as a business where everything is encompassing including but not limited to a seamless relationship and collaboration between the federation and sports ministry, insurance for players and welfare packages in a different form, then handball may have it difficult to be a podium sport in the country.
Mr. Godinho however commended the efforts of the Handball Federation of Nigeria in trying to restore the glory days of Nigeria’s dominance in Africa.