Immediate past Rangers Team Manager, Barrister Amobi Ezeaku, has heaped plaudits on the NPFL organisers, the League Management Company, LMC, saying they have given the league a massive lift even though it’s not yet a finished product.
“Its not yet a finales product. No doubt, there has been noticeable huge improvement. The League Management Company, LMC, is still work in progress,” Ezeaku said.
In his mid 30s, the legal luminary entered the récord books as the youngest team manager to have won the Premier League title following Rangers triumph in 2016.
Two years later, Ezeaku lifted the Federation Cup with Rangers to complete a double title success.
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“It [Nigeria Profesional Football League] has improved to an extent,” Ezeaku said during a personality interview on FCT Sports Update, WhatsApp interactive forum.
“In addition to the Mobile App where we can watch games, it is my humble thoughts that when games are on TV, it would bring deeper frenzy and the desired followership.”
He said that most of the other issues that affects clubs, behove on such clubs to sort themselves out towards taking the league to an enviable and adorable state .
Since the turn of the Millenium, Enyimba remains the only Nigeria club that has hit positive tunes in the Áfrican continent in club side football despite the volume of talents the country churns out and who have continued to impress for their various clubs in Europe.
Ezeaku heaped the blame on the way these Nigrrian clubs are managed.
“For Nigerian clubs to perform well in CAF inter-club tournaments, there must be a roadmap, a strategic plan that would be consciously followed,” started.
“When such strategic plans are executed, there is every tendency that we would go far in continental games.
“Strategic plans take about 3-5 years” to begin to produce results”, he admonished..
Ezeaku admonished Nigeria clubs to embrace the business and commercial aspects of the game to ensure revenue generation, revealing that such aspects include transfer of players, merchandise sales, amongst others.
“I would encourage a business investor to invest in sports in Nigeria and get top class and seasoned administrators to run the club,” he emphasised.
Looking back at Rangers title success in 2016, Ezeaku pointed in the direction of Enugu State Government as the ‘chicken that laid the golden egg”.
Rangers went through a harrowing 32 years without a league trophy after their 1984 title win before the 2016 conquest.
In the FA Cup, it took the Coal City Flying Antelopes a penalty shootout win against Kano Pillars inside Stephen Keshi Stadium, Asaba, in 2018, after coming from 3-0 down to erase a 35-year FA Cup drought.
He recalled that Enugu State Government was prepared and determined to push the team all the way.
“In a bid to achieve the objective, people were asked to apply for positions they felt they were capable of working.
“That singular act, to me, started that journey to glory.
“I remember the Governor particularly telling me he wanted international best practices.
“In 2016 when I got to Rangers, we made frantic efforts to get the players to hold us in trust and to hold us accountable.
“We first found out that most of the players we met on ground didn’t have copies of their contracts and we had to start from there.
“The structure at Rangers then was good. All we did was to get a psychologist and a physiotherapist on board.
“And, of course, with the sound technical crew we were good to go”.
He added, “In a nutshell, I would say that once the players trust the manager/management, the work becomes easier”.
He equally spoke about his recent UEFA certificate in Football Management Course.
“For my UEFA Certificate in Football management Course, I had always believed in improving myself.
“But when I served at the NFF in 2013,the trio of Barr. Musa Amadu, Okey Obi and Dr. Emeruwa drummed those sermons about personal improvement as an avenue to generating values to the society.
“I knew it was worth it. Coming from very experienced seniors and achievers, you could bet I was not going to relent.
“Of course, everyone prays to grow. So it would be correct to say I look forward to greater opportunities in the future.”
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