Proprietor of NPFL club Remo Stars FC, Kunle Soname, has explained why he can never become the NFF president.
With current NFF president Amaju Pinnick revealing that he will step down after the end of his second term, there have been calls for Soname to vie for the position.
The calls are not unconnected with the success he has achieved with Remo, one of the well runned private clubs in Nigeria.
But speaking to journalists on Thursday at Ikenne, Ogun State, ahead of the fourth edition of the MTN NPFL Laliga Under-15 tournament, Soname dismissed the idea explaining why.
“I cannot run for the office of the NFF president. It’s only in places like Nigeria that the NFF is more flamboyant than the league itself. What We need to address is the league itself, once that ripes every other things will fall in place.
“So for me all these talks about becoming NFF president is just a waste of time, until we settle the issue of structured football in Nigeria as in NPFL, NNL and all the leagues, the NFF is just a waste of time.
“Yes you have some successes but it will just be sporadic, today we succeed tomorrow we will not. But if you want a sustained success there must be a foundation for it, the league must be fairly strong, if it is not it never going work.
“That’s when you will see people that have never being to Nigeria but were born by Nigerians, if they lose matches it’s not the same as we that live here and know that if I don’t play well, even if I play abroad when the season ends I must come back here and people will shout at me so you put a little effort into it.
“So our league needs to be stronger, kids must be trained from age 10, 12, 13 for them to get to 20 and play quality football.”
On the target of Remo in the Nigerian topflight this season, Soname stated that what is more important for the club is avoiding relegation for a third time.
“This is our third attempt in the Premier League. Our first attempt we came up and went down immediately, second attempt we came up and went down immediately. So our objective for this year is clear we must not relegate.
“Even if the season ends and we are in the 15th position we will go to church and do thanks giving, that is what we want now, let us just maintain our status. In three, four years we can aspire for something else. The problems with Nigerians is that we don’t consolidate before we move forward, you put your both feet on the ground before you think of jumping.
“People should be commending us that we have done very well and like I said if at the end of the season we end up at 15th position we will go for thanks giving that in the history of the club we will be playing NPFL back-to-back, that would be an achievement for us.”
