Stakeholders Unveil Community Football Club In Warri

Stakeholders in the football industry have unveiled a new community football outfit, tagged Warri United Football Club (WUFC) in Warri to promote grassroot football development.

The club was unveiled over the weekend under the platform of the Community Football Foundation (CFF) to harness talented youths in Warri and environs.

Speaking at the ceremony in Warri on behalf of the Board of Directors, the President of WUFC, Louis Ogbeifun said a date for the launching and screening of players into the Club would be announced soon.

Recall that the objective of the CFF was to establish Community Ownership Football Clubs, one in each of the 774 local government areas in the country.

Ogbeifun who is also the Chairman, Professional Football Association (PFAN), Delta chapter said that the WUFC was established as a legal entity with the Corporate Affairs Commission in August 2021.

He said that the establishment was in line with the CFF framework as a Community Ownership Football Club to create a culture of football “density at the grassroot that will be commercially viable”.

According to him, WUFC was created to catch the young talents as well as provide young footballers with the educational opportunities and vocational skills for those that could not proceed to the tertiary institutions.

“There is no gain saying that football today is a highly paying source of legitimate earnings that provides a living for the people worldwide.

“People attest to the fact that football has a cultural expression that acts as a cohesive force that binds people of all ages, gender and races together.

“WUFC is woven around community ownership. In Warri, football has become a culture of the people. This culture is demonstrated by the people taken advantage of every available spaces to play football.

“Within the clusters of those playing the game are different ethnic groups reinforcing that football speaks an undiluted universal language that unifies us.

“Therefore, it is with a great sense of commitment and utmost trust in God that we shall nurture the WUFC to a superb and enviable position in football circles in the nearest future,” he said.

The former Team Manager, NNPC Football Club said that CFF had a lot of ex-footballers as Board members with the aim of given back to the society as well as providing employment-generating platform for the teeming talented youth.

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“Let us clarify that the CFF has not come to supplant the current football model but to complement and supplement it.

“By ensuring that each local government has a football club that is a communally-connected entity without relying on the government for funding,” he said.

Members of the management team of the WUFC included: Austin Popo (National Coordinator and the CFF facilitator), Jones Agimnuku (WUFC Vice President), Steve Okwechime (Secretary of BOT, WUFC)
Others are: Edema Fuludu (WUFC Football Director), Alloysius Okerieke (WUFC Director, IT Marketing and Media), Winluck Bowofere and Victor Olley.