THISDAY

AFA Sports Boss Dreams of Kitting Eagles, Man Utd, Chelsea

- Duro Ikhazuagbe

The country’s biggest name in sportswear, AFA Sports, is determined to leverage on its current breakthrou­gh as Official Kits partners of Team Nigeria to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Now, AFA Sports is dreaming of becoming the kit partners of the Super Eagles and the likes of English Premier League clubs as Manchester United and Chelsea.

AFA Sports’ CEO, Ugo Udezue, who spoke in Lagos on Wednesday said the firm has only been able to tap just five percent of the opportunit­ies available to them in the vast global sports market.

He said, “Talking about the Super Eagles, yes we are looking in that direction too. That will be a dream come true to kit not just the Eagles but the likes of Chelsea, Man United and Barcelona someday. It could be possible in the next couple of years as we have started developing our football brands.”

He added that the Nigerian football league is not out of their view despite the low patronage the topflight league is currently getting from the business world.

Ugo, who is a former power forward with the national basketball team, D’Tigers, made an emotional review of the deal with the Nigerian government to the Olympics and said AFA Sports tenacity for quality helped them to make history with Team Nigeria.

“We didn’t chase a contract to Abuja,” he explained, “They came to us.

“Unknown to us they had been carrying out detailed research and reports on Nigerian products. I give kudos to the sports minister and the sports ministry as it was their initiative to go with a Nigerian brand but more, they were determined to get top quality or go elsewhere.

“They visited and inspected our products from the assembly line to the finished product. They tested and were highly impressed with the designs, quality and the vision behind AFA Sports. That was how we got the job.

“What we are doing here today is to lay a solid foundation for future Nigerians. Nothing is achieved fully with just one generation. We are doing our part now and others will continue. The media was not like this, years back in Nigeria but a lot of innovation­s have come in and it is better for everyone, stressed the former NBA agent.

Ugo who hit the Nigerian and African scenes with the entertaini­ng African Basketball League and later the Continenta­l Basketball League added, “We have started well at AFA Sports and we know that it can only get better. This brand is less than four years old. If we can get this far in this short time we are positive that it will be a lot with younger ones coming up ideas. It is a Nigerian dream.”

AFA Sports made their first major hit with the Nigerian basketball teams D’Tigers and D’Tigress.

They have continued to expand in different directions as partners with the Nigerian volleyball teams, Ghana’s national basketball teams amongst others.

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