Squash players need more exposure, says Mailafiya

Yakubu Mailafiya, Vice President of the Nigeria Squash Federation (NSF), said professional Squash players needed more international exposure to perform better at international tournaments.

Mailafiya, who is a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), attributed the lack of exposure to absence of consistent corporate and individual sponsors, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos.

He, however, said the federation was doing all it could to address the challenge.

He also told our correspondent that organising more Professional Squash Association (PSA) approved tournaments was the goal of the federation in order to improve the world ranking of the players.

“It has been established that we have the players, but importantly we need to groom them. They need foreign trips to where they play squash very well for them to have the experience and exposure.”

“We know the strength of our players, but we understand that they need this exposure. Why we don’t always have it good is because sports sponsorship in Nigeria is poor; corporate organisations, multinationals don’t partake.”

“Most of them don’t get tax rebate when they sponsor, this is one of our cardinal objectives that we hope to push to the Federal Government, so we can reposition squash and other sports in Nigeria,” Mailafiya said.