By Amaechi Agbo

Head of FCT Football Association Technical Committee, Abimbola Samuel has stated that the FCT football team, known as FCT Festival Team are not under pressure to defend the gold they won at the 19^th edition of the National Sports Festival, NSF held in Abuja two years ago.

Speaking in an interview before the team departed for the North Central Zonal Elimination in Kwara State on Monday, Abimbola who coached the national U-20 male team, the Flying Eagles, said that even though the team are not under pressure, they are not unmindful of the fact that every other team are ambitious.

He added that the main focus of the team right now is to pick the football ticket to represent the North Central Zone at the 20^th edition of the NSF holding in Edo in March.

“The team is not under pressure to defend the gold they won in FCT in the last edition of the national Sports Festival but the fact remains that everybody is ambitious. I believe that the boys, the management and coaches, everybody is ambitious. Everybody wants to win and improve on their CVs.

“We still have the same set of technical crew that won gold and there is nothing bad in having it in your record that your won NSF gold two or more times. But there is no pressure on them because as we all know, everybody is aspiring to be at the sports festival and we are happy we have picked one of the tickets from our zone.

“The technical crew worked hard to achieve the feat and we are extremely glad about it. The players are also commended because they played according instructions. It was a collective feat but the great work starts now. Nevertheless, my confidence in the team has never for once been in doubt. We have a compact technical crew and talented players. Edo 2020 provides an opportunity for us to explore and make history without being under pressure,” he said.  

On how much support the FCT FA is giving to the Festival Team since the FCT Ministry is in charge of the sports, Abimbola said that both parties worked hand in glove to ensure the team succeeded in Kwara adding that the synergy continues even after the festival

“The competition is under the supervision of the FCT Ministry but football aspect of it is coordinated by the FCT FA. Throughout the federation now the various state Football Associations are in charge of their states’ football preparations in conjunction with the ministry of sports. The onus lies on the ministry concerning finances but mobilisation, training and organising the boys is under the FA. Since this is a football affair, the FA will be involved because there will be no FA without football. So we need to support whatever the ministry is doing and vice versa. We are working in total synergy to ensure that we represent the FCT well in the festival.”