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Football lovers depressed by dominant COVID-19 pandemic news, says Babaginda

By Samuel Ifetoye
23 April 2020   |   4:11 am
Since the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, the world has not been the same. Every activity and news now revolves around the pandemic, which has become the centre of the world’s attention.

Babangida

Since the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, the world has not been the same. Every activity and news now revolves around the pandemic, which has become the centre of the world’s attention.

Sports, which hitherto broke the monotony of life, have been put on hold the world over, and to former Super Eagles star, Tijani Babangida, the situation is no longer funny.

Babaginda, who is currently the president of the National Association of Nigerian Professional Footballers (NANPF), told The Guardian on Monday that missing live broadcast of the various leagues in the world has made life boring and depressing as only news on the virus dominate the world.

“The case of the coronavirus everywhere in the world has really been unfortunate. If league matches were on while people were told to stay at home, life would have been easier.

“But here we are. Staying at home without matches to watch is the worst kind of punishment you can give to football lovers. It is frustrating and most football lovers are really stressed up. Staying at home and watching only news does not go down well with me.

“There are some people like me, who don’t watch movies, but what can we do. We must obey the rules to drive this disease away,” he said.

Babangida praised the clubs for accepting to meet their obligations to their players, adding, “apart from a football club in Yobe that revealed a cut in the salary of its players, I don’t think there is any other club that have announced that. And this tells you that clubs in Nigeria are doing their best in this COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

“Now the sporting world will know that Nigerian clubs too have tried unlike the news from clubs in Europe. Definitely, the only case of cut in salary in Nigeria will be addressed.

“What I think players in our local leagues and around the world may be missing may be the football, the training, and the allowances they are supposed to get from the matches played.

“Though our players may not be getting the kind of jumbo pay their counterparts from Europe get, we should be happy that nothing has stopped in terms of them receiving their salaries.

Clubs are in difficult situations right now just like the clubs around the world.”

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