Tag: Heartland

Chairman of Imo State Task Force Committee on Sports Facility and Deputy Speaker of Imo House of Assembly, Hon. Ugonna Ozuruigbo, has defended the Committee’s plans to reduce the number of the players of the team.

According to Ozuruigbo, the move is geared towards improving the welfare of the players.

“We have 47 players in the club’s pay roll. Of these 47, only 30 are registered with LMC. Many of those players have not played a game for the past two years. Where is that done? We want to improve on the players’ remuneration and we cannot do so with such a crowd,” he said.

“There is no need keeping 47 players and tomorrow we cannot be able to pay them. Rochas Okorocha’s government is a very prudent and responsible government and we cannot harbor players who are not productive. We are going to have a squad of just 30 players. And we will pay them very well. We will also have a functional feeder team from where we can draft in players when we need to fortify. This is the era of change and a lot has to change.

“The management and technical staff alone is up to 35. We cannot sustain such a large staff. That is actually why this committee was set up. Some of those players are there just to compensate them. Things are not done that way.”

The Committee will go beyond the current playing staff of the club.

He said: “We are investigating the sell of many Heartland key players. A particular club in the South East purchased three of our key players. That reduced the quality of the team. We are going to find out why the club will sell very good players and replace them with lower quality players. That affected the club’s performance.”

He reacted to a newspaper report that the players were not comfortable with the committee’s style of administration.

“Why will the players be unhappy with the committee’s style? They had been owed bonuses for up to two years but within this one month, we paid their two winning bonuses on the pitch immediately after the matches. It is appalling to note that a club that gets N28m every month has not paid the players’ bonuses for two years. Within this one month, we have paid two match bonuses and staff salary with N18m. A lot of questions need to be answered.

“Meanwhile, we are going to have an interim management committee in the next couple of days. The management will run the club while the technical crew will recruit the players they need without interference from the committee,” he concluded.

General manager of Heartland FC of Owerri,Prince Okechukwu Ibeh has denied allegations of financial malpractices and other sundry matters levelled against him by the Deputy Speaker, Imo State House Of Assembly and Chairman of Task Force Committee on Sports Facilities,Ugonna Ozuruigbo.

Ibe had been accused among other issues of selling some former players of the Owerri based side without remitting the transfer fees to the coffers of the club but the football administrator has revealed that he was in not even the GM when some of the players in question were sold.

“Please go and check the records, I was not Heartland GM when Uche Kalu and Kayode Olarenwaju were sold. I do not know anything about their transactions neither have I seen any record of their deal. So what document would I use to claim their transfer money?

“Out of the N10m we are supposed to get from the sale of Orji Kalu, Bobby Clement and Osas Okoro, Rangers International of Enugu have only paid N6m.This amount was paid into the Heartland Account and the records are included in the financial report we submitted to the Governor and the Task Force Committee”

On the allegation that he allegedly diverted the club’s share of the funds from the Premier League sponsors, Globacom, Ibe said that since this year the club has not received any money from the sponsors of the League.

“The truth of the matter is that all the premiership clubs are still expecting the money. Also, none of the 20 premiership clubs have collected the N200,000 worth of phone recharge cards for every home match as claimed by the deputy speaker.

“The argument is, if we are not able to get the sponsorship money why should we go for recharge cards. I am one of the directors representing club owners on the board of the League Management Company (LMC) and I know that the Glo money has not yet come. Please let the committee carry out its investigation well.

“However, due to the challenges all the clubs were facing especially towards the beginning of the league season when most governments were concentrating attention on electioneering campaigns, the LMC decided to share in bits, part of the TV rights sponsorship money from Supersports. Heartland received at different times N10m, N5m, N1m and N4m all of which were paid into Heartland’s bank account.

“This enabled the club to conduct trials, pre-season camping which was in two phases spanning over two months, sign some new players and pay other bills including running of some matches which are contained in the financial records already submitted to the government.

“Let me state clearly that the Heartland bank account we are using was not opened by my administration rather, I inherited it when I took over. Before any withdrawal is made, we send in a requisition stating what we need the money for and asking for approval by the Ministry of Youth and Sports which happened to be our supervising ministry.

“From the record I met, those before me were spending as much as N4m for a two week camping exercise. Due to election issues, we had to go on camping to Oba, Anambra State two times, which amounted to over two months with many players and coaches waiting for the league to commence,”he said.

•Not interested in taking over Naze Millionaires
•Laments financial irregularities under Okechukwu Ibeh

The Deputy Speaker of the Imo House of Assembly,  Ugonna Ozuruigbo has told SportingLife that he has not come to take over HeartlandFC as being widely circulated in the media but that he and his committee have been mandated to clean up the rot in sports in the state.

Ozuruigbo told SportingLife that  Governor Owelle Rochas Okorocha told him to look into the affairs of sports in the state and also to take a cursory look at Heartland FC and know why the club has not been productive despite getting  N28 million  as subversion monthly.

He said the findings of Heartland revealed so many  acts of misappropriation of funds by the management of the club and other vices.

Abia Warriors chief coach, Willy Udube is quite a happy man following his side’s double against oriental neighbours, Heartland.

Warriors piped 10-man Heartland 1-0 in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) match day 25 clash on Sunday at the Umuahia Township Stadium.

The Umuahia warlords obtained the same goal margin result at Heartland in the first fixture clash in Owerri.

Striker, Chisom Chikatara scored from the penalty spot to hand his side the whole three points at stake.

Udube said though Heartland proved their worth in the game but his charges proved themselves the better side in the clash.

“It was a beautiful game for both sides but more beautiful for us to have picked a win in Owerri and another win on Sunday in Umuahia thereby taking the whole six points off Heartland in the ongoing season.

“Heartland have their youngster goalkeeper, Emmanuel Iwu to thank for the low goal margin.

“Iwu was at his very best as he pulled lot of beautiful saves for his side throughout the hotly contested clash.

“The encounter proved its pre-match rating as a local derby but I think we were clearly the better side.

“We hope to continue the fine run at 3SC in Ibadan to further put more pressure at the summit,” said the former FC Ifeanyiubah coach to supersport.com.

Abia Warriors have taken their total earnings to 40, six points behind league leaders, Sunshine Stars.