Proprietor Ifeanyi Ubah FC to construct games village in Nnewi

Abuja – Ifeanyi Ubah, the proprietor of Ifeanyi Ubah United Football Club has said he

would build a games village with three modern football pitches in Nnewi to help develop football in the country.

Ubah, who said this in an interview with newsmen in Abuja on Sunday, pointed out that the village, when completed, would be among the best in the world.

He also said that the board of the club had already approved the construction of the village, which he estimated to cost millions of naira.

“We are going to put up lots of facilities in Nnewi; we are building one of the best playing turf in the world and we are building a games village.

“The board of the club approved it last week and it will have about three pitches with an accommodation that can host close to 200 players day in and out.’’

The football club proprietor, who is also a major oil marketer in the country, explained that the games village would be mainly for the academy of the club.

He further explained that the academy would be separated from the elite (Ifeanyi Ubah United) and the feeder teams to enable the club to concentrate on its plan to develop players for domestic and international clubs.

“The main thing is to work hard; that is why I don’t want to lose concentration by shifting the feeder team to the academy pitch which the board just approved last week.

“If we are using the same complex, it will disturb our training pattern. So, we want them to concentrate on development; we are very serious about this investment in sports.

“At the same time, we have so many partners coming from different parts of the world, so, we need to develop our feeder team, our academy and also our main team.’’

Ubah pointed out that the club’s target was to be among the best in Africa, adding that the aim was also to win the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) title with the first league appearance.

He said: “everybody targets to win the league; for me, that is the stepping stone but conquering Africa is our target.

“We did a research and discovered that sports is worth investing in. Again, because we now have affiliation with seven European clubs, we decided to give it a shot.

“We are investing in sports in and out of the country because we intend to move our boys abroad.

“So, we are looking at the investment and it is not something that will start yielding results today but in the next four years.

“We hope that we will have close to 200 of our players playing in international league matches and by so doing, we can have formidable structure from our football organisation.

“This will help the national team of our country at all time to get players for international competitions.’’

Ifeanyi Ubah United FC, previously known as Gabros FC, is currently placed fourth on the NPFL log with 17 points, after 10 matches. (NAN)