Recently honoured by the government and people of Abia State for his meritorious service to football as well as supervising the golden era of Enyimba International Football Club of Aba since taking over the reins of the club in 2000, Felix Anyansi-Agwu shares his good and bad moments with the People’s Elephants in a revealing conversation with MORAKINYO ABODUNRIN.
Football has undoubtedly made Felix Anyansi-Agwu smile and cry as the debonair chairman of Enyimba International Football Club chats his course in the beautiful game of soccer.
Nearing almost two decades in the saddle, history would forever be kind to Anyansi-Agwu having yet supervised some of the golden moments of the Aba-based side but he reckons the years gone by have not been without some difficult challenges.
In a revealing interview with The Nation ahead of last Wednesday’s Total CAF Confederation Cup first leg semi-final 1-0 home loss to Raja Casablanca of Morocco in Aba, Anyansi-Agwu recalled how his doting son emblematically stabbed him in the back over his love for the club widely known as the People’s Elephants.
“Above every other thing, my family gives me immense joy and my children and wife have made huge sacrifice because of my involvement with football and, especially, my service to Enyimba.
“I’m married to football and for someone passionate as I am, it means my family suffers a lot because I’m not always available for them,” stated Anyansi-Agwu who marked his 53rd birthday on August 8.
Anyansi-Agwu came into the saddle as chairman of Enyimba at the turn of the last century in 2000 and he has revamped the fortunes of the club from a provincial club to continental warlords by leading the People’s Elephants to many conquests at both local and continental levels.
Under his watch, Enyimba became the first Nigerian club to win the CAF Champions League trophy in 2003 after 39 years of failure by several clubs including foremost Rangers International of Enugu and Shooting Stars Sports Club of Ibadan and they successfully defended the crown in 2004.
Apart from winning the CAF Super Cup in 2004 and 2005, Enyimba have also won the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) title seven times, as well as four Federation Cups, amongst other silverwares under the watch of Anyansi-Agwu.
Such remarkable feats with Enyimba, according to him, were not without a price: “I owe my wife a lot of gratitude for her unconditional and unquantifiable support which has helped me to succeed with Enyimba.
“My wife and children has sacrificed so much because of my involvement with Enyimba. My children don’t see me too often and I remember a particular incident with my little boy.
“This particular afternoon, I came home to pick something and as I was about leaving the house, he called on me ‘daddy, you are leaving again?’
“What he said touched me because it was like a stab behind my back and I looked back with tears rolling down my cheeks. You can therefore understand what the family has gone through because of my involvement with football,” explained Anyansi-Agwu who was recently honoured for his meritorious service by Governor Okezie Ikpeazu during the 27th anniversary of the creation of Abia State.
Of course, Anyansi-Agwu has witnessed bountiful harvest seasons with Enyimba but will easily recollect some bad spell (such as Wednesday’s home loss to Raja )that actually made him criy: ”Oh, come on, football can blow off your mind and there are matches you lose that you shed tears; even if it (tears) doesn’t drop ,you shed tears in your heart.
“It has not been that easy because one has to soak in a lot of pressure because some results can give you heart attack.
“Some of us in football have developed high blood pressure for over 15 years and being Enyimba chairman is not only about the fun fare because there are lot of things administrators and coaches pass through that people don’t see.
“Football management is not an easy thing; the tension is especially much when you are passionate as I’m because of my love for football and especially for Enyimba.”
Anyansi-Agwu’s magic wand should be of interest to football aficionados having supervised what would be regarded as the club’s golden era since its formation in 1976 by a civil servant – Jerry Amadi Enyeazu – who was the first Director for Sports of Imo State out of which Abia State was carved out.
“I’m always grateful to God for his mercies and grace upon me, my family and the Enyimba family in general,” he volunteered. “It is not easy to be in a particular position for so long and still remain relevant but God has been very merciful.
“Football management is all about experience and you can only gather such experience the longer you stay on the job.
“You must also be committed and have enormous passion for the job; this is paramount because you cannot be in a particular position without passion for the job.
“My passion for football is immeasurable; my commitment to football can’t be quantified. Football is me and I’m also part and parcel of football.
“Football is my first love; a game that I loved from my younger days and I played the game at the primary, secondary and higher schools where I also played active role in terms of its administration. “I’ve also played active role in private capacity even before I came on board as an administrator of the club and I couldn’t have succeeded without the grace of God.
“My commitment to football and especially to Enyimba is second to none because without commitment, you cannot achieve much.
“It also goes with its own challenges but the experience acquired over the years has helped in manoeuvring what could be a major problem,” noted Anyansi-Agwu, as he speaks on other sundry issues.
Stewardship since 2000
In 1999, I came in as the vice-chairman of Enyimba Football Club and I grew from VP to Chairman in 2000 and the club actually had two matches left to escape relegation. If they had lost those two matches, they would have been relegated but by the grace of God we were able to win those two matches. That saved Enyimba from relegation that year. In 2001, we won the league title for the first time in the history of the club. We retained the trophy in 2002 and also in 2003. Also in 2003, we went as far as winning the CAF Champions League for the first time in the history of Nigerian football and we added CAF Super Cup in 2004. We retained the CAF Champions League in 2004 and also won the league title and FA Cup in Nigeria as well as the CAF Super Cup in 2005. That was the trend with high level of consistency; and that has been the great motivation for us. We have set and broken records in Nigerian football and we were usually between second and third positions in some years we didn’t win any trophy in Nigeria. When you go into the history of Enyimba, it’s very rich because we have won everything winnable in Nigeria including seven league titles and four Federation Cup.
Comparison between the 2003-2004 and present Enyimba squad
The 2003 and 2004 set was fantastic and because the team was built from 2000, you can see clearly a certain level of consistency; those were memorable moments. With the benefit of my experience over the years, I can say that our current team has winning mentality and they have the capacity to achieve like their predecessors of 2003 and 2004. Having reached this stage, the players are well motivated and they want to make names for themselves.
Bold bid for CAF Confederation Cup
The only continental trophy that is left for us to win at Enyimba is the CAF Confederation Cup. But we are very hopeful and God willing, this is the year for us to win this important trophy. As in boxing, we have likened the Confederation Cup to the unification bout and we want to win the trophy to complete our haul of trophies in Africa. We still believe it is possible for us to achieve because of the way people, especially His Excellency the Governor of Abia State, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, have rallied behind us coupled with the support of our teeming fans here and across Nigeria and beyond. We know that Nigerians eagerly want us to win this elusive Confederation Cup and we believe this is possible through hard work and commitment.
Dealing with several coaches over the years
Yes, a lot of coaches have passed through here. Many of them have been so wonderful but I must confess that it’s not easy to manage players and coaches. But it comes with some skill and understanding about the nature of the job. From day one, I’ve created the enabling environment for them to do their job without any distraction. You can ask the coaches that have worked here and they will tell you that I’m probably the only club chairman that has never bothered to see their list for matches until it’s officially released. Over almost 20 years that I’ve been in charge, I have never requested to see the team list and that shows that I give the coaches the freehand to do their job. I don’t interfere with their job.
Plans after leaving Enyimba
There are still lot of things and dreams that I still want to achieve and before I came in fully to Enyimba, I was an importer of goods and other things that I’d put my hands on. By the grace of God, there is a whole lot of progress on whatever that I’ve touched. One thing is sure: I will always be around football even when I leave Enyimba. I have a dream of running a model football academy that will be educationally based. This will be purely for young people so that they can combine education with football. I’m not going to forget my business acumen and will continue to supervise some other things that I already have in my private capacity.
From football to political minefield
Contesting for governorship in Abia Sate? Don’t even go there. Honestly, I’m not over ambitious and I’m a very calm person because I know what I want. At the moment, I’m not a trained politician and going into politics now is not even in my thinking. My thinking now is to do my job with Enyimba in a respectable and honourable way so that we can take the club to the next level. I want to leave a stable Enyimba that will be self-sufficient so that others coming behind can achieve much based on the platform we’ve created. My resolve now is not only about getting results though it helps. We want to build a capacity so that Enyimba can be self-sustaining. We want Enyimba not to depend solely on government funding in order to survive in a foreseeable future.
