Management of Rangers International F.C has come out to debunk a trending video on the Facebook page of a campaigner over the activities of the club regarding one of its former players, Ugochukwu Ugwuoke, describing the video as cheap blackmail aimed at tarnishing its image.
Administrative Secretary of the seven-time league and six-time F.A/Federation Cup champions, Barrister Ferdinand Ugwuarua, said that management would have chosen to ignore the video that is circulating like wild-fire but the weighty allegations contained which is aimed at maligning management and sports loving government of Enugu state.
The youthful administrator, Ugwuarua, in a chat, said, “Management’ attention has been drawn to the social media video originated by a certain ‘Okwuluora’ but I assure every lover of Rangers International F.C that this is but a tip of an iceberg to what we see in the game of football. Blackmail from different office seekers and players whose contracts have expired suspecting that they shall not be re-considered for a place in the squad. However, to keep the record straight, all that the maker of the video, a very ignorant, Okwuluora, said in the video are tissues of lies from the pit of hell.”
Further, let it be known to discerning minds, “Ugochukwu Ugwuoke remained the best Nsukka talent in our club with good skills but has attitudinal issues like most budding talents. He got injured in a match day 7 fixture of the 2021/2022 football season with the club’s physiotherapist and orthopedic surgeon working themselves off to get him back to fitness but his insistence in disobeying medical instructions meant he failed to get the fitness level needed to defend the club’s colors ever since. Despite large calls to stop his dues against FIFA rules, the club continued to pay his dues until the end of his contractual period, the 2022/2023 season. It is management’s view that the player, Ugwuoke, who was present at the end-of-the-season general meeting at the players’ camp, where he joined other players to collect his playing jerseys for keeps, sensing that his contributions to the team, while his contract lasted, may not earn him another one, devised this unorthodox means to coarse the management to retain him”
It should be noted that management and coaches in an effort to bring the best out of him, made him the assistant captain of the side in the ended season, 2022/2023, to saddle him with some leadership responsibility but he failed woefully albeit lateness to training, blatantly failing to move into camp for close bonding and monitoring against management directives. The public should also know that the player joined Rangers from an amateur club, Purple Krown where he was on a paltry N20,000.00 to rise to N360,000.00 a month in Rangers which management believes, made him uncontrollable.
Is it not ironic that while the club’s former technical adviser made an open statement that Rangers was the first club he had worked for and finished his contract without being owed any of his entitlements, our loud-mouthed, ignorant, and self-acclaimed social media crusader, is coming out with this blackmail to derail management’ resolve to rejig the team for a productive 2023/2024 football season already fixed to kick off in August 2023.
It is also unimaginable to think that players’ salaries are tempered by any member of management when such payments are made into every player’s bank account. The issue of the government paying five million Naira to the management for the treatment of injured players is inconceivable as the club has the best comprehensive insurance cover for its players and officials as is the case with our midfielder, Eso Achibong who got injured in the field of play two seasons back, got treated, came back and played his hearts out in every game he featured before getting injured again in the last league match of the 2022/2023 season. Let us not forget that the insurance cover was the reason the family of our late attacker, Ifeanyi George, got paid the sum of twenty-million-naira benefits.
Ugwuarua further stated, “These tactics are being deployed by disgruntled players and job seekers who are throwing it at the new government of H.E, Barrister Peter Mbah, the executive governor of Enugu state. How can you be recommending the sack of everyone including cleaners? Did the cleaners also eat and partook in a purported taking of players’ money? I assure Ugochukwu Ugwuoke, ‘Okwuluora’ and their cohorts that no amount of blackmail and witch-hunt will stop the club from dropping non-efficient players.”
Please remember that management had on Thursday, declared a three-week break for players and coaches and are expected back in camp on July 16, 2023, to start training on July 17, 2023, in preparation for the 2023/2024 football season.
Nobert Okolie
