Ikeja Super League:Coker Counsels Coaches To Live Up To Expectations

Chairman Technical Committee of Lagos State Football Association, Adedotun Coker has urged coaches whose teams are participating in the forthcoming Ikeja Divisional Football Super League to live up to expectations and show passion for their coaching career.

Coker disclosed this while delivering his paper titled Team Management And Development at the just concluded 2021 /2022 Ikeja DFA Super League seminar held at Agege Stadium, Lagos.

The event which was organized by Ikeja Divisional Football Association led by Evangelist Taiwo Alagbe popularly known as Alhaji Mokan were attended by football coaches, club owners, managers,refrees,media and other football stakeholders as invited speaker talked about various issues bordering on coaching and football management.

While addressing the participating coaches, Coker observed that many football coaches in Lagos and the country at large from grassroots to professional level lacked the passion for the job saying that only passionate football coaches could succeed on the coaching job.

“I discovered that some of our football coaches who don’t have passion for the job always have problems. If you are such a coach who lacks passion for the job should change your mind as from today. It is when you have a passion for the job, a coach can succeed on his job,” he said.

Coker also advised coaches to commit to their long term plan saying that most of the coaches fail nowadays because there is no focus, no direction and no long term plans for their teams.

“Coaches should have a long term plan at least three or four years plan. Don’t rush to get results in order to impress the club owners. I am aware of the challenges the club owners mounting on the coaches but like I said, if a coach wants to succeed on the job, he must have a long term plans for the team. Without the long term plan, such coach may be fired or not be able to develop any player for commercial purposes in the nearest future,” he said. 

Commenting on the relationship between coaches and players in the team, Coker said henceforth coaches should not abuse or discredit his players before the media noted that it is common among some coaches to blame their players when result fails to come. He said many players at times play for their coaches not the club owners because of goodwill of the coaches and excellent relationship they have with their players.

“When you see a coach doing well, go and check his relationship with his players, you would discover that such a coach has fantastic relationship with his players. I want all coaches to encourage, support and motivate their players both on and off the pitch. We should not blame our players for our misfortune rather we should take the blame in the spirit of sportsmanship,” he concluded.

Meanwhile twenty teams are expected to take part in the Ikeja DFA Super League scheduled to commence on March 22, 2022. The league would be played on home and away format. Ten teams are in each group.

Group a comprises of Almcity FA, Flying Baten, Reality FA, Olusosun United,, Atlas FC, 89 FC, First  Future Legend. Others are Greater Tomorrow, Smart City and Flexy FC.

Group b are made up of Alimosho champions league title holders, Kotech FC, YG Academy, Ante International, NAFRC FC, Fut Pro Sport, Legacy FC.Others are Mighty Sparrow, Recovery Horse, Crwoned FC and Dosu Joseph FC.