Joel Ajayi

The immediate past Chairman of Gombe State Sports Commission, Honourable Dr. Larry Daniel, has disclosed that his positive impact indeed lifted the struggling Gombe United, as well as Sport Commission in the the state.

The ex-player, Dr Daniel, also identified self discipline, commitment, hardwork as well as his love for grassroots development as the tools used during his tenure to bring the desired tremendous success to the Commission.

There is no doubt, the Ex-Chairman left no stone unturned to ensure growth and development of sports in Gombe state.

Speaking on Wednesday, during the interview segment with presenters on the largest network of Radio Nigeria, the former Nigerian player explained how he brought struggled Gombe United from relegation, to be on sixth position on the Nigeria Professional Football League.

“Before I became Executive Chairman of Gombe United Sports Commission- after 12 years of leaving sports, because I am a business man, I was called that Gombe United needed experienced people like me, and this is a club that is darling to me, I don’t want it to die.

“And I can’t forget to mention the immense contribution of Senator Haruna Garba, he has done tremendously to make sure Gombe United stay up till today. When the Governor, Alhaji Inuwa Yahaya, called him to ask, what can be done to Gombe United to ensure its existence? He said, Dr Larry Daniel should be brought to Gombe United to be continued.

“And today I want to thank God that when we came in as a Board in 2020, during (COVID period), Gombe United was already relegated to second division NNL, but I want to tell you that throughout Gombe United’s stay in NNL, we never lost a single match both home and away, even we were superb at Super 8 as well, and we got promotion back into NPFL.

“And in the first year, we played in NPFL, our performance was good, we came sixth position on NPFL’s table out of 20 teams, even in abridged league 38 games, we came 7th.

“Before we came, the club was struggling, we revived the club and brought it back to number one league.”

Highlighting some of the measures he put in place as the chairman, Dr Larry revealed: ” when I came on board, I looked at what and what to be done. The first thing we did was to ensure there is water at every corner of the stadium.

“We discovered there was no water, the two bolehole were not working in the last 7 years during the previous administration, and in the rule of sports, you can never operate any sports without water.

“Today, in Gombe, every part of the Sports Commission has water.

“Also, we fixed the issues of toilets to stop open defecation that had been happening before we came, in just one year, we built 8 toilets.

“Not only that, we started aggressive campaign for grassroots development, through ministry of education, we went to all Primary and Secondary schools, because during our period, most great athletes were discovered at grassroot level and as I am speaking to you, it’s yeilding tremendous result.”

When asked to compare athletes of today and his playing days? He replied: “Those days, we had good commitment, we stayed together with one mind and not playing too much for the money, even to wear the jersey alone was enough respect.

We trained ourselves, we don’t even wait for coaches to train us, we train like professionals during our playing days, we were committed and we always want result but today, the case is different.”

The former Gombe United player, therefore, urged youth in the State and Country at large to be committed to everything they are doing saying, the future is bright for committed athletes.

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share