By Femi Atolagbe

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Ondo State Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, Mr Saka Yusuf-Ogunleye has banned Sunshine Stars players from taking motorcycles to training and directed immediate repair of the team’s vehicles.

The Commissioner said: “An end has come to players taking bike to training sessions, you are professionals and it’s time to treat you as real professionals that you are”.

He promised to increase, their match bonuses, adding that feeding allowance will also be increased adding that other entitlements will improve.

Yusuf-Ogunleye stated this at a meeting with players, technical crew and backroom staff of the club at the games village in Oda road , Akure.

He averred that it’s imperative to meet with the team, address their challenges and offer immediate solutions geared towards getting the desired results.

The Commissioner while commending the players for their beautiful display against Shooting Stars FC in Ibadan, cautioned against complacency in their defense in the subsequent matches.

He promised to improve the welfare of players and backroom staff to enhance productivity, saying he will look into the issues of fake registration, betting and others that had been alleged to have affected the team negatively.

According to him, “Indiscipline brought us to this level, despite having some quality players in our team; an end has come to that.”

“All the challenges will be addressed and any act of insubordination and indiscipline will be a thing of the past.”

“It’s shocking to hear you players are talking about the bad state of your hostel, from this moment , it will be conducive, electricity will be restored.

The commissioner directed that electricity be restored at the team’s camp.

On issues raised by some players that they were abandoned each time they got injured in line of duty and bills for their treatment not attended to by the team officials, the commissioner said it was pathetic to hear that players were abandoned each time they were injured in line of duty and bills for their treatment not attended to by the team officials.

He therefore gave an approval for the payment of all medical bills of injured players.

“Let it be on record that no player should be allowed to treat himself with his money after sustaining injury, and from today an improvement has come to the medical team in terms of money,” he added.

He approved the release of funds for the purchase of drugs for the medical team of the agency and gave immediate order for money to be paid into the account of staff in charge of washing of players kits.

He requested for the list of regular players, promising to reduce the number of players from 52 to a reasonable size.

He urged players tagged “Political” to exit the club as Sunshine Stars FC is not a party secretariat saying politics should not be prioritised ahead of results, as (ODSFA) is not a charity home.

His words “Throughout the county, there is no state that has a football agency. We have and we are the most least on the log, poor management of the agency has led to the challenges we are facing but we shall overcome,” he noted.

The commissioner, also set up a committee to look at the scouting and transfer of players in the U-17 team.

He advised those redeployed to the U-17 team and Sunshine Queens to resume saying,”change is the only thing that is constant.’’