Unusual times for FC Ifeanyi Uba News

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Unusual times for FC Ifeanyi Uba

By Daily Sports on October 30, 2017

Truly speaking, this is not a normal time for Dr. Patrick Ifeanyi Uba, financier of NPFL side, FC Ifeanyi Uba of Nnewi. The Oil and Gas business mogul has been in the eye of the storm and heavily loaded waves. There is a side of the news that no sane person would even dream of, not even for his arch enemy. But that is where Uba and his pet team have found themselves today. It looks as if it is loading. The club is currently in tatters no matter what you have read about their resuming for the new season. There is real trouble in the team. Players both key and otherwise are on their ways out.

The genesis of the new turn of events for Uba is not farfetched. First it was his face-off with NFF supremo, Amaju Pinnick where both men accused and counter accused each other over what I believe they supposedly agreed secretly within them. However, that disagreement did not last long in the public domain as both men ceased fire. Yet, I sense cold war.

But the bubble eventually burst with a bang, bringing Uba to public ridicule. There execution was clinical and Uba has been left with sorry sight bruises.

It is bad copy for him. In this our profession bad copy makes the best of news. In short, it is like hot cake, oven fresh. Traffic hits of three such stories on FC Ifeanyi Uba and by extension, its owner attest to where I’m heading to. So far as this game is concern, Uba is down and drowned. The same click that milked and enthroned him has brought him down. That is his burden right now.

What has happened to Uba is not new in NFF politics. It has been on. Uba thought he has entered into the main stream and raised his voice too loud in a family discussion only to be hit below the belt, which remains till date, a punishable offence in boxing. That is the kind of blow the Nnewi born business tycoon currently suffered and he is still nursing the terrible and multiple wounds.

It serves him right because those that manage him don’t know their left from the right. They are flat and clay footed. Though, Uba is said to be heady. His aides are not experts in image making. Their principal is engaged in a fight with power brokers in the Football House. It is injury time there at the NFF. Please don’t ask me how because time will tell. Those “Never Do Wells” Uba surrounded himself with, that tell him lies have finally ruined him. They helped to cut his ambition short and he is no longer in any calculation so far as NFF and its 2018 polls are concerned. He has been dealt a deadly blow and has been dazed. He has been stripped in the market square.

If Uba make further noise, he will be shown the way out including what is left of his FC.

It is not funny as they came all out to diminish him and equally ensured the business magnet was cut to size such that he couldn’t rock the boat during the elective congress of the NFF last September. He has been thoroughly frightened, if you like, humiliated by his captors. They brought him to power overnight in Anambra State FA and now that Uba has grown teeth, the same people have not shown mercy rather they collaborated and released his dirty aspects via his club.

It is the price he has to pay and I don’t have sympathy for him. He got what he deserved. In a write up on this page entitled: ‘Anambra State FA: Waiting for Ifeanyi Uba’, I critically analysed the situation and people that aided him to become the Chairman of Anambra FA. Many have pointed to the Nigeria Football Federation as the brain behind the crisis in FC Ifeanyi Uba, which has greatly rubbed off on the owner’s image.

This school of thought insists that it was a ploy to bring Uba to his knees and teach him some bitter lessons that football politics is quite different from the one he plays in the polity. Uba saw red in the hands of those that made him. Let no one cry for him. He deserves such treatment, in my own reckoning because he broke all rules and the powers that be gave him cover. When his overbearing hands became unbearable, the rug was removed off his feet. He has been silenced and the powers that be are now beating their chest. They have entrenched themselves and have compensated those that may raise their voices in future.

It was all politics. After all, if FC Ifeanyi Uba truly owed its players salaries, Uba is not alone on that train. I’m not Uba’s fan because he allowed himself to be messed up due to bad advisers and his arrogance too. The young people like him threw him on the mud not minding his sparkling white attire. Football politics is like that, Uba is still wondering what hit him like a thunderbolt. He thought he was a wise man and also a moving train. I thought those that are his advisers would have warned him in advance when he ferried into football arena.

The feat High Chief Oyuki Obaseki suffered in the hands of his fellow Executive Committee Member when he dared to fight corruption in Nigerian football ought to have served as a guide to those that mill around Uba. Unfortunately, they have no sense of history. They collectively gave out Uba to the enemy. As you are reading this, Uba is licking his wounds. He was out-rightly disgraced. He set himself up from the word go because it was said that he who eats with the devil does so with long spoon. Whether it will give him some inclination for future endvours remains a mute-point and only time will tell.

What happened to FC Ifeanyi Uba last week also brought to the front burner, the saying that “All that glitters is not gold”. He must have learnt the hard way. He was deliberately disgraced and he has been bluntly told. Uba was told the bitter truth.

Uba was chosen to be maltreated, hence he was brought forward. Oyo State government, owners of 3SC owed players and their technical crew, yet Gov. Abiola Ajimobi never came into the public glare. The Oluyole Warriors are massively sacking players and officials.

The League Management Committee (LMC) is still looking the other way on 3SC. It suddenly became a toothless Bull Dog. Daily Sports followed the story of how Uba was dealt with. Enjoy the unfolding drama:

LMC to probe 5 months’ no-pay claim by FC Ifeanyi Uba players

Officials of the League Management Company (LMC) will be in Nnewi, Monday to verify claims by players of FC Ifeanyi Uba that they have not been paid five months’ salaries by the club.

The players had petitioned the domestic football league organisers through their solicitor earlier in the month over their alleged unpaid salaries.

LMC on Friday, October 20 in a letter signed by the Chief Operating Officer, Salihu Abubakar, informed the players through their solicitor that they will be at the Nnobi Road, Nnewi office of the club on Monday to verify their claims.

This followed counter claims by the club that they are not indebted to the players.

Following the players’ petition, LMC wrote to the hierarchy of the club conveying the players’ claim, leading the decision for an on-the-spot verification which it slated for last week Monday.

“All the affected players are hereby directed to be present at the venue for the verification exercise,” LMC said in the letter.

The rules are clear that players owed as much as three months’ salary can terminate their contracts and walk away as free players.

As if the above was dying down, came another with headline below…

Unpaid salaries: FC Ifeanyi Ubah players bank on LMC

FC Ifeanyi Ubah players who are pressing for their unpaid five months’ salaries have said they are now banking on the League Management Company (LMC) to make sure they get their dues.

According to reports, LMC officials including former NPFL star, Victor Ezeji, tried to meet with the FC Ifeanyi Uba players and officials on Monday in Nnewi but the meeting was botched after thugs barred the players’ lawyers from being part of this parley.

“We believe the LMC will come out clearly and boldly to say enough is enough, that the players should not be taken for granted anymore and that be paid what they are entitled to,” one of the players said.

“The club has turned us into beggars and that cannot be accepted,” added another affected player.

“The LMC has done well so far, but they ought to use our own case to make it clear that contracts be respected in this league.

“We have a very good case and we will fight it to the end no matter who is involved.”

Iyke Igbokwe, the lawyer representing the 24 players said he and his clients remain very hopeful that justice will be served by the LMC.

“We have made our case and we are confident these poor players will receive their entitlements. A worker deserves his wages,” Igbokwe said.

Top officials of the ‘billionaire’ Nnewi club have insisted they are not indebted to the players and that they are not even aware of Monday’s botched parley. The last was not heard as the coach finally dumped the club hence this headline:

Yaw Preko dumps FC Ifeanyiubah for Ghana Job

Yaw Preko has left his job as Coach of FC Ifeanyi Uba to take over as Coach of the National Under-20 team of his country, Ghana according to Thepredictorng.com.

Preko took over as Coach of the Nnewi based side after Japanese coach Keinichi Yatsuhashi who he was supposed to assist left the club after a row over the composition of the team.

Under Preko, FC Ifeanyi Ubah failed to match their feat of the previous season, and allegations of non-payment of salaries for five months have led to mass exodus from the club.

“Preko remains a part of us and we have left the door open for him to return anytime because he is a fantastic Coach and has done a very good job with the team in the one season he has spent with us.

“Actually he did not leave the club or was sacked as being reported. He got an offer from his country for the Under-20 job and as footballing people we cannot stop him from taking up such a role to serve his country. If it was in Nigeria here he could have handled both jobs,” an unnamed source was quoted as saying.

The club has been left without direction. From the onset the team’s management has a history of not good working relationship with her employees. Its image is further battered in that area and as it is now only a stitch in time will save this club as its undertaking song is fast gaining ground and it will be the end of an era. His key players have all found greener pastures in other clubs. One is keenly watching how Patrick Uba and his management would avert this looming shame. Already Uba’s image has been terribly dented and those behind these are beating their chest that their job has been accomplished.

My heart goes for the players and their officials for the unfortunate incident that engulfed FC Ifeanyi Uba. We will keep our readers posted and we shift discussion to continue on Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook and Linkedin. Keep shooting hard till next week!

Source Daily Sports

Posted October 30, 2017