Sports
Ex-Rangers Players Plan Memorial Project
Former players of Rangers International have set up a Central Working Committee (CWC) that will organise a memorial project for the club’s deceased players and founding fathers.
The project, with the theme: “To Uphold the Spirit of Football in Igboland“, is aimed at remembering the positive contributions of the departed players of the club.
Mr Stanley Okoronkwo, the Chairman of the Committee, disclosed this in an interview with theTidesports in Enugu yesterday.
According to him, the project is about recognising the founding fathers of the club and some deceased Rangers players, who had dedicated their lives playing for the club.
He said it was unfortunate that nothing had been done for the families of such people in recognition of their contributions to the club.
The committee chairman described the founding fathers and deceased players as the club’s “Unsung Heroes”.
“The project is all about remembering our dead compatriots and the ones that are living too because if you look into our problems, you’ll find those that are dead, their children are there, school fees is hard to pay, rent is hard to pay.
“Then some of us that are living that they are incapacitated can’t even help themselves. It’s been on for years and these guys are part of what re-instated the Igbos into Nigerian polity.
“For you to let them just go like is unfaithful. So what we are doing is to re-organise our people; talk to our people; carry our case down to the extreme that we can go – let the people know what we are going through.
“We are seeking their support and help; that’s what we are doing.”
Okoronkwo said the association would launch the memorial project by unveiling the logo in November.
As Chairman of (CWC), Okoronkwo is expected to be in charge of marketing and finance, while David Kalu will serve as the committee’s Secretary, and Chairman of the Communications and Administration Sub-committee.
Ernest Ufele, a member of the committee, will double as Chairman of the Sub-committee on Mobilisation, Contact and Security just as Dominic Nwobodo will serve as Chairman of the Protocol and Logistics Sub-committee.
Ufele described the project as a laudable one as it would enable them to use the opportunity to remember what the ex-Rangers players had done for the club in the past 41 years.
“We are making contact both at home and abroad and the response has been tremendous. We also thank Gov Peter Obi of Anambra for the support he has given to us.
“We are soliciting for support from other state governments, stakeholders and corporate bodies to actualise this project.”
A well-known football pundit in the State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has lauded the efforts and vision of the Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to invite some exceptional good one discovered into the main stream of the Super Eagles team.
Okonkwo, who made the commendation in an interview at the Port Harcourt Club recently, described the positive move by Coach Chelle as a good step in the right direction, noting that the practice was how its been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged Coach to lead the National team, visiting some our Nigeria League venues during the league matches to spot light some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of Eagles team”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continously been over depending on the use of foreign based players during invitation of players to the National camp, thereby, relegating the domestic home based league players to the background as if they have nothing much to offer to the team.
“I can vividly recall that the likes of great players in the mode of Finidi George, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Richard Owobokiri, Emmanuel Osuigwe among others started from Nigeria football league before they graduated to play in Europe through which they later invited to Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serves as a a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in near future”, Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself in staying in big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discover some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there some young good players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, could give the some of the invited foreign based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a postion in the team”, Okonkwo emphatically stated.
Ezechukwu, one of the youngest members of the Nigerian contingent at the championship in Ghana, said her ambition was to win the 100m title in style and cap it with a new personal record.
The fresh secondary school graduate explained that she is fully focused on contributing to Team Nigeria’s medal hopes and is determined to deliver strong performances across her events.
“My main objective in Ghana is to clinch the 100m title and the 4×100m,” Ezechukwu told Tidesports source.
“Nigeria can be assured of my very best and my commitment to the Team. I would love to set a new personal best in Ghana, but anything that comes, I will take it. The spirit in the team is high, and I think we are ready to go,” she said.
Ezechukwu, who was part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay squad at the World Relays in Botswana, said the experience gained from that competition has strengthened her mindset heading into the continental championships.
She admitted that she learned valuable lessons from her previous outing, including a difficult moment during the relay where an early error affected the team’s rhythm, but said she has used the experience to improve her discipline and composure.
“The secret is just being disciplined, training hard and trusting my coach and believing in God, and the result will show,” she added.
The teenager is part of a 41-member Nigerian team comprising 24 female and 17 male athletes competing at the championships, which begin today at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Nigeria are expected to compete across multiple track and field events as they aim for a strong finish against the continent’s elite athletes.
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