Chairman of the Rivers State Teqball Association, Halim Zaka Adebola has spoken about his journey into the sport and how prepared Rivers State is ahead of the World Cup qualifiers.
Halim spoke to Igulafrica in Port Harcourt as Team Rivers prepares for the World Cup qualifiers in Aba. He is his chat with Igulafrica.
Igulafrica: Good to have you on this interview session. I want to ask: What drew your passion to Teqball; it’s not a common sports like football or basketball that people always rush into. Why Teqball?
Zaka: Let me just introduce myself for the records. My name is Halim Zaka Adebola. I’m from Ogun State. I’m the Chairman of the River State Teqball Association and also the Patron of the River State Football Coaches Association.
What drew my passion to Teqball? Some years back, I had a friend. When we met, he talked about him being the chairman of Imo State Teqball Association.
Then I was just thinking, what is Teqball about and all the rest. Until Coach Keshi Chijioke mentioned it again to me that he has a contact in Abuja and they are looking for those that have passion to develop the sport. That it’s a new sport.
So I now remembered my friend. I’m trying to remember his name. I called him and asked him, is it Teqball you told me about last time? He said yes. So I now told him that it seems both of us will be in the same field. He said, wow! That’s a welcome development. That’s how I just told coach, yes, if it’s Teqball, I’m in.
Igulafrica: Ok, do you think Teqball as a sport in Nigeria is getting enough motivation?
Zaka: For now, the Chairmen, Vice, in fact the Executives of most of the states are struggling to push Teqball forward. Only about three state governments have developed interest in the game. They have been sponsoring, but we are just managing (laughs)
Igulafrica: I can understand why you say you’re just managing. This brings me to my next question. So how do you source for funds for tournaments?
Zaka: We came in early last year. The body was inaugurated early last year and they informed us that these are part of the problems we’ll face. So we tried to contact the state government, corporate bodies and all the rest. But most of them are not forthcoming.
So fortunately for us, we had one Patron, Ambassador Paul Oguaba who also has interest in Teqball because his passion is [developing a new game]. Before all eyes would be in it, we would have gone very far. And thank God we got somebody like that. He has been of immense help to the Teqball.
Igulafrica: Alright, so the World Teqball qualifiers is coming up around 24th of this month in Aba. What are the chances of Nigeria qualifying?
Zaka: The way it is right now, in the qualifiers, we have five categories. The men’s single, women’s single, mixed double, then women’s double and men’s double. Any athlete that picks gold will represent Nigeria in the world tournament.
Igulafrica: So how do you scout players?
Zaka: It has been God all the way. If you go to the stadium you will see them training for about three days a week. Coach Keshi has been doing a very fantastic job.
We too, from time to time we see what we can do to encourage them to come in and then we have footballers everywhere but those that have the passion they just come on their own to ask: ‘I love this game, how can I register?’ We will tell them they don’t need to register, just come and try it and we’ll teach you.
Once you can do it, the beauty of it is that you come in today; you try it. If you are good, we pick you to Aba and there is every chance you are going out of the country immediately.
The World Cup qualifiers begins in Aba on September 24th-27th, 2025. The group stage games will be played from 24-26 on knockouts while the medal games will be on Saturday, September 27.