Nigeria’s sole survivors in this season’s CAF inter clubs competition, Warri Wolves; have attributed their hard won victory in Congo to the timely intervention of Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan to the club’s predicament.
Warri Wolves braved the odds to earn a late 1-0 victory over Congo’s MK Etancheite on Friday and advanced to the next stage of the CAF Confederation Cup. The win means that Warri Wolves have remained unbeaten in three away matches of the competition, a rare feat by any Nigerian club side.
Financial constraints had affected most Nigerian government-run clubs this season as more attention was apparently given to financing electoral campaigns.
That saw Dolphins of Port Harcourt being walked over by Tunisia’s Club Africaine in the CAF Confederation Cup. Both Enyimba and Kano Pillars, in the more prestigious CAF Champions League, were knocked out in the last phase to the league stage, meaning that Nigerian clubs missed the league stage in three consecutive seasons.
Nigeria’s sole survivor in the quartet registered for continental assignments was being feared to have similar fate in the face of dwindling financial commitments until Governor Uduaghan intervened.
According to a statement from the club, NFF boss, Amaju Pinnick, has congratulated Warri Wolves and dedicated the win to Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan who responded promptly to see the team travel out to Congo for the potentially difficult assignment, having won the first leg 2-1 two weeks ago.
Indeed, Delta State under Dr. Uduaghan has been the major supplier of sports personalities in Nigeria and has always been the undisputed leader at successive National Sports Festivals. At the London 2012 Olympics, 12 of the 78-man team of Nigeria were from Delta State.
Of the 11 gold medals Nigeria won at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, six were by athletes from Delta State.
Undoubtedly, no state in Nigeria has had massive investment on sports than Delta State has done.
The medical doctor governor strongly believes that with the template he put on ground, Delta will remain the leading sports stars’ factory for the country in the next 10 years.
The signs are clear. Virtually every leading athlete in the state has a back up star waiting to take over. For instance, the celebrated Blessing Okagbare is already being trailed by Ese Brume who won the 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medal in Women’s Long Jump following the withdrawal of Blessing Okagbare who opted to concentrate on winning the medals in the sprints.
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