Don’t Ignore Club-Owners' Interest, Chukwuma Warns NFF

By Eddie Akalonu Though elections into the Nigeria Football Federation took place last week and officials elected, Gabros FC of Nnewi chairman, Gabriel Chukwuma has predicted that there will be no end to problems of Nigerian Football. In his opinion, “stakeholders were excluded while those who gathered in congress have no stake in the game. Speaking to Sports Vanguard, Chukwuma was asked to name his true or real stakeholders, and his response was “Chris Giwa is, I am a stake-holder. Anyone who runs a football club from the Professional league to the Premier league is a stakeholder. “And these are the people that should be committed to the Nigeria Football Federation. They are to produce the president and rest of the board-members. A mistake mistake of our football has always been not carrying club owners along. We pay players, help them and their families get what to eat. We create the true atmosphere upon which football thrives in Nigeria. “Those hanging around NFF now have not contributed a dime in moving the game forward.” He took a jive at those claiming to be football administrators. “The people they call stake-holders in our football are Fake- holders. They do not have any stake. What is the stake of a state FA chairman who was politically appointed into office? What is his interest in football? How much of his personal money and or private property has he sold to invest the proceeds on football? We need to flush out these state FA chairmen for a proper gathering of football community to take place. “Because some of them have over-stayed their tenure, some are in office for upwards of ten years or more. They just don’t talk about election in their own states but hassle for that at national level. They clamor for elections in the centre only selfish reasons. They are politicians who came based on political settlement,” he said, adding, none of them has invested a dime and they will never invest in our football. But they are everywhere, struggling to get on overseas trips and collect estacodes in the process. Some have roundly refused to leave office. Because he is of the belief that state FA chairmen constitute the primary problem of football in the country.” The Gabros FC boss also has therefore prescribed a way forward for running football at state levels , insisting that “because their number is limited, they are prone to be swayed by money offers. But with club owners, no one can try that because we are many and have spread all over the country. So it is difficult to get everybody to accept what will not serve the general interest.” For lasting peace in football, Chukwuma is calling for sacrifice by all side because Nigerians love football though insists that the right thing should be done.