The Chairman of the Beach Volleyball Commission and Nigeria Volleyball Federation (NVBF) Musa Nimrod has appealed to Samsung Electronics and other corporate organisations to sponsor the game’s proposed National Tour.
Nimrod said in Abuja yesterday that the tour would serve as its league for qualification for the Continental Tour later in the year.
“We are already in contact with Samsung Electronics to sponsor our proposed National Beach Volleyball Tour which will go round the six geo-political zones.
“It is a competition that will serve as our league, with players getting points from it for rankings which will determine their participation at continental and international engagements.
“Without the National Tour, the players cannot go for the continental tour which will come up in the fourth quarter of 2014 and the Rio 2016 Olympics qualifiers.
“So, it is because of this that we are appealing to Samsung and some other corporate bodies to come to our aid to enable us accomplish this task ahead of us,’’ the Beach Volleyball Commission chairman said.
Nimrod, also a NVBF board member, disclosed that the tour was expected to start from Kaduna and move to other cities such as Jos, Lagos, Yola, Jalingo, Enugu and others.
Speaking on the perceived poor performance of the national beach volleyball teams in 2012 and 2013, Nimrod attributed the situation to visa denial and not funds as speculated.
“The problem we had during the qualifiers and some of the championships held in 2012 and 2013 was visa denial by the embassies of some of the countries we were supposed to go to.
“We were lucky then that we had the funds, and we were able to champion our cause and we prepared well for the events. But we were denied visa at the last minute.
“This affected morale greatly, and the sport generally,’’ he said.
Nimrod however said the federation was confident that it would not witness a recurrence of what happened then.
“I am sure 2014 will be a better year for us. We are now wiser and we will be better prepared,’’ he said.
The Beach Volleyball Commission chairman however appraised the just-concluded NVBF President’s Beach Volleyball Male and Female Championships as rewarding.
“Good talents were exhibited, and we have seen a good number of players who will form the bedrock of national team players.
“The talents who were discovered will be nurtured to glory and as soon as we have a date for the Youth Olympics Games qualifiers, we will open camp for them.
“This is because our target for this year is to take the male team to number one in Africa from their current third position.
“The Nigerian female team is already the first team in Africa, and we only need to consolidate on that,’’ Nimrod said.
The 2014 edition of the championships, which is the third in the series, was held on Feb. 21 and 22 at the Jabi Lake Dam.
Five male and four female teams took part in the championships, with Team Kaduna winning the title in both categories.
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