Dosad FC set to tour Iran and Bahrain
The director Dosad fc Enugu-Ukwu Fr Obinna Dike said Dosad fc where invited for football scouting tournament primarily in respect of marketing our players that our foreign partners have been following.he called it AsiaTour first in Iran and later Bahrain. So, that of Iran, we were invited for a scouting program because they have been following our team as champions of AIFL and they followed our profile how our players are developed since 2019. An agency there together with their football federation is putting up an international scouting tournament primarily for us to discover the beauty of Iran against so many negative stories about Iran.
AIFL is a vision for growing footballers in the right way for the grassroots to stardom. Just like we have in developed countries all over the world with developed league. They don’t joke with their academies. Speaking to sports writers Fr Dike I will give you a typical example, in AIFL we play for nine, ten months in a football season. That’s the reason DOSAD FC as a team we decided not to play NLO Reason, in NLO they play for three months, and the rest of the months will be a waste.
According to Fr Dike the establishment of Anambra Independent Football league (AIFL), the state breath a fresh air after many years of no active league.Dike’s bold step amidst dangerous waters of football politics in the state.
One of such blessings is the invitation of DOSAD FC, the current Champions of AIFL to participate in a football scouting tour of Iran and Bahrain.
Rev. Fr. Obinna Dike, one of the founder AIFL and director DOSAD FC, gives insight on the Middle East invitation and the dream behind AIFL.
Fr Dike decided to use it to launch what he call ‘FOOTBALL BEYOND THE PITCH’ program. Because footballers have also life to live outside the pitch. Nigeria and Iran have so many things on the side of negativity but then some positive things about football. So, we want to use that language of football to show that yes not all Nigerians are drug peddlers or those who harvest organs. Just like the world knows, we have great footballers and talents. So, that’s precisely why we are going. At the end of the day, we have some players that may join Iranian league. And also our partners all over the world are coming there because the program will have also scouts and club directors from Russia, Armenia, Spain, Saudi Arabia would be coming to watch our team.
We are actually supposed to travel second or third week of June but then to make everything right to accommodate our travel of both Iran and Bahrain, most likely we are traveling first week of July. We have gotten our visas.
About seventeen (17) players and two (2) officials are traveling to Iran while nineteen (19) players and two (2) officials to Bahrain.
First of all, the vision of DOSAD and AIFL is that at the grassroots we can discover talents, nurture talents unto professionalism, unto excellence. And that’s precisely what we have done over the past four, five, six years. This is the sixth season of AIFL and this players playing in the league, some of them have had experience with national teams ( U-17, U-20), some of them had experience with NNL teams, NLO teams but basically they were trained here. They have remained fate with us. Even as we are traveling, the Iranian team, about 11 of those players have pre- contract with clubs who are coming over there. So, these players have been profiled with so many programs we have done like this. But this time around we want to take it outside the shores of the state and outside the shores of this country to the world.
Actually, it is a cap on top of the honors we have. Because the reason we created AIFL is to have a microcosm of Super League you hear about. Those who want to play professional football start from this amateur grassroots level and replicate what they are doing over there. So with this foreign tour and all that opens a whole lot. As l am talking to you now, with this two, when we got Iran Bahrain called and cued in. Now we have Hungary, we have Moldova.
They have expressed interest for us to bring our team later. Some of them will be coming there to watch our team. It’s a great opening for Anambra and for the league. In as much as it is DOSAD FC for this one, we have two or three players other AIFL teams and then in subsequent ones we include more players because we are one big family.
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