Chairman of the Imo State Football Association, Barr. Ifeanyi Dike has said that the 2023 Imo State Veterans Cup is aimed at redeeming football in the state, Wakawaka Sports Extra reports.
According to Dike, the competition will afford key stakeholders and legends of the game in the state to brainstorm on ways to revive football in Imo State.
He recalled that the state has been one of the highest producing states with great talents in the game adding that the state FA will go back to the grassroots to catch them young.
While calling on Imolites to turn up enmasse to grace the competition, he revealed that veterans such as Nwankwo Kanu, Mobi Oparaku etc will participate in the event.
His words: “In our efforts to recover and bring back all the stakeholders in football in Imo State to a roundtable for us to collectively achieve our aim of getting football back to where it belongs.
“We have decided to throw up a competition as a stepping stone wherein we will see all our contemporaries and all our friends to brainstorm and bring in ideas with the aim of making football what it used to be in Imo State.
“Before now, Imo State and the old Bendel State were the biggest producers of talented footballers when it comes to the national team and all the cadres including the female teams but this time around, we are not where we are supposed to be. At the same time, we are not receiving the national cake we ought to have been receiving as the highest producers of these products.
“So, we have resolved to go back to the drawing board and start from the grassroots by involving the experts, legends and those of them who were part of this game when they were younger to share with us their experiences.
“We are not only considering the players alone. Sometime last week, we concluded the coaching seminar which guarantees the participants to get a certificate that will allow them to sit in the NLO matches.
“The same will be going to the match commissioners seminar and after that we will roll out our programmes next year. Imo FA must be very busy. We must return football to where it is.
“Somebody like Ambassador Nwankwo Kanu, Ifeanyi Ekwueme, Mobi Oparaku, to mention but a few. All of them are in support of what we are doing and they are very happy with it.”
In the first game of the competition, DDFA won 1-0 against ASFA.
