Cyriel Dessers has expressed his delight as Rangers secured a spot in the knockout rounds of the UEFA Europa League.

Philippe Clement’s side sealed their qualification with a 2-1 victory over Belgian club Union Saint-Gilloise at Ibrox on Thursday night.

Dessers, who delivered an impressive performance and provided an assist, was named Man of the Match.

The Gers finished eighth on the group standings, ensuring direct qualification to the Round of 16 without facing the playoffs.

“We are indeed eighth. I just heard it on the pitch. That is special, because we skip a round,” the Super Eagles striker said after the match.

He added, “This is an incredible club, and the European evenings are special. It’s really great.”

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That the labours of the nation’s past heroes will not be in vain, the National Sports Commission (NSC) will prioritize the welfare of retired athletes and olympians who had excelled in the national colours. NSC Chairman Mallam Shehu Dikko gave this assurance while hosting the Nigeria Olympians Association (NOA) led by its President Olumide Oyedeji.

In Dikko’s opinion, one way to encourage the current athletes is by ensuring that the retired ones are not disregarded.

His words, “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not toying with the welfare of our athletes generally, but particularly our ex-internationals. It is his mandate and we have keyed into it. There is a budget line for the welfare of retired athletes. It may not be much but that’s a good starting point. It means that every year, something will be mapped out for the upkeep of our retired athletes. That money will be judiciously used. But we have to be specific. Not just any retired athlete, we are referring to athletes who wore these green and white colours and we can vouch for them. We want you to feel that Nigeria cares for you.”

There is also good news for athletes with unfulfilled past promises from the government.

“There is also a budget line to fulfill past promises government made to athletes. We know that there had been situations in the past when athletes excelled, they were made financial promises and even some have passed on without those promises being fulfilled. We have a catalogue of those promises and Mr. President has graciously approved a budget line for that purpose. With this development, we will be redeeming those promises gradually. Every year there should be a block funding to sort that out.”

The association’s request for an ‘entourage commission’ which would see the olympians serve as mentors to athletes at major sporting events got a glowing endorsement from the NSC helmsman.

He said, “The issue of entourage commission is one that I am committed to. In fact, we will push to make it a bill so that it becomes a law to have these retired athletes who have seen it all accompany our athletes to Games. There is a huge psychological boost the presence of these great olympians will have on the athletes having them side by side at the Games.”

Dikko eulogized the olympians for their past exploits that brought honour to the nation and promised to engage them more in the Commission’s activities.

“The major reason why the President set up the Commission is for the professionalization of the sector. Who are the core professionals? It is people like you. We will look at the involvement of the olympians in our programs. If you have the right people on the table, you get quality representation”, he added.

He drummed up the Commission’s aggressive grassroots sports development drive in a bid to strengthen the conveyor belt for talents and replace the retired athletes.

“We are doing things differently now. We have set up the three Rs, reset, refocus and relaunch. We are moving our sports from the emphasis on competitions which is consumption to development which is production. This entails that we have to be deliberate in our grassroots development of sports, the schools sports, NUGA, NIPOGA, NACEGA Games. We have struggled to replace most of you retired athletes over the years because of this neglect for the grassroots. We are changing all that now”, he said.

He promised equal attention to all sports.

“We are not a football Commission. We are here for all sports. In this this commission we are working to advance all sports and even in the last week we have held meetings with baseball, motorsports, hockey, volleyball, taekwondo, armwrestling, polo all manner of sports you can think of. We are doing sports development and sports economy here and every sport has the potentials to be a huge revenue generator for the country. We want the Federations to be serious and show proof of development of the sport with domestic tournaments. We fully keyed into what the Cricket U-19 team is doing in Malaysia because even before that tournament you could see the visible efforts of the Federation to unearth and develop talents”, he concluded.

Dikko pledged his support for the upcoming Olympians reunion tagged “the labour of our heroes past.”

Highpoint of the meeting was the induction of the NSC Chairman as an olympian, an act which according to the association, accords him the full privileges and rights of an olympian.

The NOA delegation comprised of Olumide Oyedeji (President), Lawrence Iquaibom (1st Vice-president), Chief Falilat Ogunkoya-Osheku, Emmanuel Babayaro (Secretary), Hameed Adio, Emmanuel Oshoma and Olusegun Ajose. Also present at the event was SSA to the President on Grassroots Sports Development Adeyinka Adeboye ‘Zulu’.