Team Nigeria Too Large —Ali

Yusuf Ali

Yusuf Ali

Former national long jump champion Yusuf Ali has described the proposed 803-man contingent to the All Africa Games in Mozambique as “too large to manage”.

Yusuf Ali

Ali advised the National Sports Commission (NSC) to reduce the number of sports from 23 to specific sports in which Nigeria had comparative advantage and medal prospects.

He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos that preparations for the Games ought to have reached an advanced stage by now.

“It will be quite a daunting task to manage a mammoth contingent of 780 athletes and 23 officials at the All Africa Games in Mozambique in August.

“The number is too large. A large contingent would endanger logistics and we must guard against such distractions.

“We should instead concentrate our preparations on those sports we are sure of winning medals from rather than embarking on a jamboree,” he said.

The former champion also said the country was capable of doing well at the Games and urged the NSC to take advantage of its abundant talents.

“We have the athletes who can win the Games for us but we have to plan for our victory.

“We should not take things for granted and delay preparations until it is too late to make any meaningful impact.

Ali also suggested that money budgeted for the Games should be released on time and properly utilised.

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