The sole financier, Ikukuoma FC, High Chief (Dr) Summers Nwokie has stressed that the new club has been established to remain very competitive and strive to seal ticket to the Nigeria Premier Football League in the next couple of seasons.
Ikukuoma FC which was recently birthed and players drawn from Like-Minds Fitness Club organised Ikukuoma Secondary Schools Football Competition and Ikukuoma Mbaise Unity Cup has started with a bang with the acquisition of a slot in the Nigeria Nationwide League Two.
High Chief Nwokie said in an interview with journalists that he is delighted to float Ikukuoma FC which is a subsidiary of Ikukuoma Sports Development Foundation and that ensuring that he nurtures serious minded players to stardom is his major objective of setting it up.
He said his major push is the love he has for football and that since he was unable to play the game as high as he could have loved, he is thrilled to continually fund it to ensure quality players are spotted and are helped to fulfill their ambition.
“It is the love of the game that has brought me this far. I am just doing what I love,” High Chief Nwokie told journalists in an interview.
“We are here to take our boys to any level. We have put things in place to make them comfortable. We don’t really have it all and it is why we are calling on professionals to help us with their advice to make the team grow.
“I am not expecting anything in return. I am doing it for the love of the game. If money comes along the way in the line of doing what I love, I will take it. I am not going to get tired because it is what I love doing.”
The astute administrator pointed out that the camp for Ikukuoma FC players is on the verge of completion while players welfare would be his priority to ensure the players and back room staff are happy.
He also informed that Ikukuoma FC team is open to adding more quality players either from Imo State or outside it who can help the team to flourish and achieve the minimum target of getting promotion at the end of every season.
“We are building a camp and it will be ready any moment from now. We are taking care of their feeding and at the end of the month they will get stipend to keep them going. We put everything in place to make them comfortable.
“We welcome serious minded players from outside Imo State to come and fight for shirt. I am a man of good taste and I like whatever I like to do to be the best.
“We will try to vie for promotion to the NLO 1 and then to the NNL before the ultimate to the NPFL. We will try to get promotion at every season end.”
The former goalkeeper expressed his dream to lead Ikukuoma FC to CAF Inter club competition in the near future and that everything possible to ensure the club becomes one of the talked about clubs in Imo State and even beyond.
High Chief Nwokie who revealed the name of the foundation from Ikukuoma Foundation to Ikukuoma Sports Development Foundation said emphasis have shifted to helping footballers with the potentials to achieve their goals.
“Our dream is to play in the CAF Club competitions. It is what we are going to target. The sky is our starting point for us. It is not our limit.
“We now have a new name for our foundation. It is now Ikukuoma Sports Development Foundation. We are in for the business.”
He confirmed that the second edition of the Secondary Schools Football Competition he bankrolled but organised by Like-Minds Fitness Club would hold later in the year but would cut across secondary school in Imo State and not limited to Owerri zone alone.
“I will really like the Secondary Schools Football Competition to continue. I will like to utilise all avenues to spot talents anywhere they can be found,” High Chief Nwokie noted.
“We will ensure the competition is sustained and it won’t be for Owerri zone alone but for the entire Imo State.”
The Ikukuoma Mbaise added that plans are underway to get Ikukuoma FC a brand new coaster bus and he further revealed interesting plans to endear the name of the club in the hearts of Imo people and even beyond.
“We were talking about getting a bus to convey them to different locations for their games. I will work at getting it in the next few days.
“We will like to be doing well as a club so that people would be happy to identify with us. It is then they will start wearing our jerseys and our other replicas,” he concluded.
