Friday, 27 January 2017

Mid-week matches are killing us- Uwau cries out

By Taofeek Babalola

Lobi Stars technical adviser, Godwin Koko Uwua has told SportingLife that the mid-week matches are not good for the Nigeria football. The former Enyimba FC of Aba manager said the organizers of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) should have considered so many things before fixing mid-week games.

Uwua complained of fatigue as the players are not finding it easy with frequent travels to play league games within few days on bad roads.

TheMakurdi-based outfit suffered a 4-0 defeat to MFM in the match day 3 game in Lagos on Sunday before returning to Makurdi to thrash ABS 3-0 in the match day 4 on Wednesday.

“We thank God that we won our match against ABS. But I must tell you that the long journey is really affecting how we play our games. Mid-week football is not good for us and not everything you see that you copy. You have to understand that our roads are bad. And we have to travel for league game within three days interval, it is not good at all,” the former Niger Tornadoes coach said to SportingLife.

Uwua, who helped a South Africa club, Free State Stars gain promotion to the Premier Soccer League in 2007, said any journey that is more than three hours is usually by air in South Africa.


“In South Africa, any journey that is more than three hours is by air. In England, which they are taking after too travel by air for any match that is more three hours because of jet lag.  We traveled about 12 hours to Ibadan for 3SC game on Sunday and it really affected my team’s performance, and we had to travel to Markurdi the following day to play against Kano Pillars on Wednesday. The following morning, we were on the road for another 13 hours journey to Lagos for MFM game. It is not easy and not good for our football. The distance covered is not favourable. We are doing something we don’t understand. Tomorrow (Friday) we will be on the road again to Port-Harcourt to play against Rivers United on Sunday. For how long are we going to continue with this?,” Uwua lamented.

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