… new Club to create Culture of football density at grassroots – President
By Francis Sadhere, Warri
A new football club, Warri United Football Club (WUFC), under the auspices of Community Football Foundation (CFF), has been unveiled in Warri, Delta State with the aim of catching young talents in their prime.
Unveiling the new Club at Octagon club, Warri, President of the club, Mr Louis Brown Ogbefun, while addressing the press, said the WUFC was established as a legal entity with the Corporate Affairs Commission in August 2021.
He added that the club was also established “in line with the CFF framework as a Community Ownership Football Club to create a Culture of football density at the grassroots that will be commercially viable.”
Ogbefun, who was flanked by other Board of Directors of the new club, said the motto of the club, “The Club, the people, and their culture,” attest that football has a cultural expression that acts as a cohesive force that binds people of all ages, gender, and races together.
Ogbefun, who is also the Chairman of the Stephen Keshi Football and Vocational Centre, Obazuwa (SKFVTC) noted that “Football, like culture as a way of life, shows a common, shared interest and aspiration. That is why football is synonymous with the concept of a team with a sense of discipline and unifying commonality.
“Therefore, we hope that Warri shall again soon experience the love for the game as those days of the Jaramaes, the NPA FC, the NNPC FC, and the NEPA FC,” Ogbefun said.
“It will interest you to note that God used football to put food on the tables of almost all the Directors of this Club. In our days, we were lucky to get employment in outstanding organizations like the defunct New Nigeria Bank. National Electric Power Authority. Nigeria Ports Authority, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. Sharks of Port Harcourt, etcetera.
“Our coming together, therefore, is to give back to society part of what it gave us. The innovation will also help as an employment-generating platform for our talented youths. Let us clarify that the CFF has not come to supplant the current football model but to complement and supplement it by ensuring that each local government has a football club that is a communally connected entity without relying on the government for funding.
“There is no gainsaying that football today is a highly paying source of legitimate earnings that provides a living for people worldwide. It is, therefore, with a great sense of commitment and utmost trust in God Almighty that we shall murture the Warri United Football Club to a superb and enviable position in football circles in the nearest future,” the chairman of WUFC added.
The Chairman said they shall soon make public the tentative date for the launch and screening of talents in Warri metropolis.
On his part, Austin Popo, Ex International, National Coordinator and CFF Facilitator, said the Board of Directors are all Warri boys, adding that their aim is to use the club as unifying base.
He said the club will be owned by the community and that funding of the club will be by house funding through membership fees, entry tickets, purchase of services from the Club, and contributions in kind (Volunteer workers).
Popo added that the second source of funding of the new club will also be, company contributions through sponsorship (shirt and team sponsorship. squared sponsorship, athletes, event sponsorship. Venue/Stadium naming, broadcast sponsorship), equipment Facilities, donation, Advertising in Sports Program Membership of Sports Club and taxes.
Other source of revenue for the club, according to Popo also, will include franchising/licensing of sporting goods production and licencing of Internet sites for the sale of sporting goods on behalf of the Club/league.
“The Board of Directors will hold forth for five years and are subject to reelection after five years.
“We are going to nurture the children and we are going to look at the welfare of the players too. For us to ensure that the future of the players is secured, we will ensure that as a club before you come out to operate you must have the players salary that can last for at least one year,” Popo said.
Other board members of WUFC include; Hon. Jones Orighomisan Agimnuku (Vice President). He is also the Chairman, Nigeria Football Supporters Club Delta State Chapter; Comrade Steve Okwechime (Secretary) and Secretary, Football Intermediaries Association of Nigeria FIAN.
Others are; Edema Fuludu (Football Director) an Ex-International, Deputy General Secretary of PFAN, former General Manager of Warri Wolves and Bendel Insurance and former Super Eagles midfield Maestro; Pastor (Comrade), Aloysius Okerieke (Director, IT Marketing And Media), Comrade Winluck Bowofere (Director), a former NITEL. FC, and Mobil FC. Eket football player, and Comrade Victor Olley, an astute union leader and a former Branch Chairman of the PENGASSAN Shell Branch in the country.
