With Mike Adeyemi
Alloy Chukwuemeka is the Director of Sports ABS FC Ilorin, in this interview with MIKE ADEYEMI he speaks on the readiness of the club toward getting back to the top league as well as laying the foundation for the takeoff of ABS stadium this year. Excerpt :
What is the latest position of ABS FC?
ABS is one of the professional league clubs in Nigeria. We are previously in the Nigerian Professional League, that is the top league before, about two years ago when we got relegated to the lower division.
Since that time, we ‘ve been playing at the second tier leagues. Last year, our aim was to get promotion, but we couldn’t make it.
This time around, the league will start any moment from now, I think between March and April.
It is our hope to use this abridged league to bounce back because the top league is where we belong.
We have been in the top league twice and went down, but we hope to go back.
What is the preparedness of ABS towards getting back to the top league?
Of course. After x-raying our performance last season, viz-a-viz our inability to get promotion as we have targeted, we decided to overhaul the technical crew. We recently unveiled the former Golden Eaglet coach-Hassan Abubakar, to take charge of the team after coach Tunde Sanni left.
So, we strongly believe that with an experienced coach like him who has gone to the world cup, and considering the fact that just last season, Coach Hassan Abubakar took Gombe United to the Premier League.
So we believed strongly that with him in ABS, he will replicate those things he was doing so that we can bounce back to our target for the season.
So far so good, he has started screening, the players have started coming. We retained 9 players from last season, we have about 24 more players to injects so that we commence the new season in earnest.
Is it true that Dr. Bukola Saraki has conceded the management of ABS to his son, Seni?
Yes of course. The Chairman of the club is Seni Saraki, Oga is just the proprietor.
We had the former chairman Abdul Adama. When he left, I was in charge of the team on probation, pending the appointment of a substantive chairman and Seni was brought in.
Since he came in to the club ,he has brought a lot of innovations to the team. We had partnership with PUMA and we are the only team that is kitted by PUMA in Nigeria.
You also remember that PUMA Kitts Arsenal FC of London. So, that is a very good one since the chairman came.
He also brought in a coach from Spain, talking about Coach Henry Makinwa, who guided us back to premier league, but unfortunately we got relegated.
After, he went back to Spain. As I speak with you, he is with Abia Warriors in the premier league. They just signed him.
So, since Seni took over, there was a turn around in the team as I told you. He gave us the backing that our financial problems would not be like it was before. There has been lots of improvement since he came in.
How true is it that ABS FC is set to build it’s stadium this year?
Yes. The proprietor of the club, the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki gave us a mandate that we must make the club a brand for others to emulate.
That we should run it professionally, and that is why we are running it purely professional.
You cannot see players who are not good in our team. So as a responsible and responsive management, we try to look at that mandates given to us and how to keen it to ensure the club remain the brand for others to emulate.
So far so good, people have been coming to ABS to learn one or two things. As you can see, we have a club secretariat, after that we have our club house which was recently commissioned.
So, another infrastructure that needed to be put in place is a mini stadium and as I speak with you ,arrangements are in top gear for us to lay the foundation of a new stadium in 2019 so that the construction will commence immediately.
As we have the office, we have our players camp and we have our mini stadium, then we have laid a foundation for football to grow.
And that exactly is what is obtainable in other developed nations of the world. When facilities are in place, at the same time that we have built a name by ABS, as you can see presently that most of our players be it the U-17, U-20 are playing with the super eagles.
Virtually all the premier leagues club in Nigeria has one or two former players of ABS.
So, this is what we have been doing to project the image of the club in perpendicular with the mandates given to us to make the club a pure progression and that is why we want to build our stadium in earnest.
Has the financial crisis of the club been settled?
Yes. Football is highly capital intensive and when you look at football from the private ownership in Nigeria, 95 per cent of the club are owned by the government.
So the few private clubs are competing with millionaire government clubs. It has not been easy.
But in terms of doing our jobs as a professional side, we try to curtail our expenses with the available resources.
We have our challenges quite all right, but we have been trying as much as possible with the assistance of his Excellency, the Senate President, who is the sole financier as well as other internal business we do to augment so as to keep the club going.
As I speak, we are moving steadily despite the challenges.
Financial challenges is every where. Even government don’t pay salaries. We had some States who owes ten months of salary.
That shows you that an individual who has created that platform to help football in Nigeria, he need to be commended not otherwise.
