In order to boost football activities in Gombe state, former House of Representatives who represented Gombe/ Kwami/Funakaye, Hon Khamisu Mailantarki has kicked off a mega football development programme in the state.
Mailantarki disclosed this when he hosted an interactive session with the leaders and coaches of national and state football leagues respectively at the Hajiya Amina conference hall in Gombe.
Presenting his speech, the CEO of Aqua Gardens and Amazon Kayak stated the conditions of the programme would be executed under his football academy ‘Mailantarki Care Football Academy’ under which the franchise deal with the European and domestic partners was sealed.
Similarly, he explained to the club owners the nature of any possible deal that would involve teams if their respective players were found worthy of selection to form part of the platform under Mailantarki Care Football Academy.
Meanwhile, the platform has since made its debut by showcasing talents from the state to Russian Football Development side FDC Vista and a domestic scouts UDE Sports Management talents hunting programmes in Abuja respectively, successful players from the latter exercise will participate in the next phase of the programme scheduled to hold in Port Harcourt in September.
Furthermore, he said arrangements were concluded for the first ever regional scouting tournament under the platform, the event which is scheduled to hold in Gombe would see about 10 foreign scouts/agents in participation for possible recruitments of talented players to various football clubs and academies in Europe.
The programme is a branch of Mailantarki Care Foundation aimed at exposing talented players to foreign scouts/agents for career development, the foundation is a dedicated charity initiative for youth empowerment launched by the former federal legislator years back which had since impacted the lives of many beneficiaries across the various developmental programme.
In a related development, Mailantarki had swiftly responded to the demands of the two football forums (Nationwide and state leagues) by paying all their registration expenses for the 2021/2022 season worth N2.7m (two million and seven hundred thousand naira) in other for the clubs to focus and start early preparation for the upcoming third tire and state leagues competitions respectively.
In their separate response, the delighted stakeholders and coaches lauded the philanthropic gesture as they termed it the first of its kind in the history of football and the interest of the development of the game in the state.
