The mouth-gaping players’ hotel project that was recently launched by Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) – with FIFA’s support – in Abuja apparently already has a very solid model to beat in terms of excellence, Sports247 reports.
The model that NFF’s ambitious project has to beat is at Remo Stars Stadium, Ikenne, Ogun State, where a posh hotel named BLFA stands within the same fenced premises of the ultra-modern sports complex.
Although officials of the hotel stressed that they operate as a different entity from the stadium owned by Honourable Kunle Soname, their connection can never be in doubt, as they are separated only with a wired fence.
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At the same time, the aura of sports is so strong that both senior and junior staff at the hotel gather every Monday morning to engage of physical exercise, aerobics and fitness drills, under the guise of staying healthy.
Furthermore, a basketball court stands right after the last football pitch and before the wired fence that separates the main stadium from the hotel, thereby bringing another dimension to the marriage of sports and hospitality.
In effect, just as the NFF is looking forward to a situation whereby players of the national teams will in the near future be camped at a top-grade hotel within Package B of Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja, Ikenne already has ‘hospitality standing right next door to sporting activity.’
The only difference, though, may eventually be if the NFF make their players hotel affordable to the common man, while BLFA prides itself as a place of wonder for ‘big men’ of society – not just everyone from the sporting world.
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