Ahead of the Cross River State Football Associations’ (CRSFA) election on Saturday May 20th, 2023, some aspirants in the state had expressed how prepared and qualified for the position of a chairman.
The Director General, C’River State Electrification Agency (SEA) Dr. Eric Akpo, while speaking to newsmen in Calabar said due to his many years of vast experience in the sector, he was hundred percent prepared for the election.
Dr. Akpo who is one of the contestants and former Special Assistant to the Governor on Technical matters said as far as football is concerned things are stagnated in the state.
The DG SEA said that he had observed there had been a lot of sentiment from the fans , players and the team management. And that he could know there’s need for something new to coming in and change the football atmosphere.
Akpo, the current chairman of the Angles Badminton sports club in Cross River, at the interview also stated that there is a law of diminishing returns, and that if you have been in a system for too long and you give everything you have, there will be nothing more to give.
“That’s why change is constant and this is the most righteous time for me to step in to the field,” he said.
“If you ask how prepared I am, I would say I am 100% prepared, Dr. Akpo said “I have come into the football sector for quite a number of years, I own a club, I have realized that there’s no motivation for both club owners, players and supporters.”
“People have lost interest in the game of football which at some point was the talk of the town as far as Cross River State is concerned and the world at large.
“A visiting team just came in to the state and you discover that they have more fans and so there’s something strategically wrong somewhere,” he said.
He said we need innovation, new methodology, and new ideaology, to bring people back to the stadium to watch football match.
According to him, “We need to take over tournament back to the grassroots, we need to have challenge cup, governors’ cup and prizes for effort.”
Akpo, went on to say that “when people realize that we have secondary school sports competition in the state parents will pick interest, they will push their children in knowing that when their children win, one or two players are going to have scholarship from the FA.
However, Akpo, noted that there had not been discovering the young ones due to lack of football tournament in secondary and primary schools, and that the CRSFA had loose a lot of players in the state because of lack of sponsors, therefore, they need sponsors so that the club can be paid.
He revealed that “this is a delegate election and they’re about 24 delegates and there has to be motivation, there has to be that magnetic force that pulls people in to football game.
“I have the capacity but I think is more about grace, all the delegates I have spoken to shared the same sentiment with me. I can tell you they keep talking with me in daily basis,” he continued, “Not that they hate his opponents but they feel the have over stayed.
As to the salary of players, he said it does not come from the pocket of the FA chairman, but there has to be motivation, a magnetic force that pulls people interest in the football.