The winner of the Simplified Football Tournament, Okirika United Football Club, has begged the Rivers State governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, to come to their aid following the alleged delay by the Football Association FA, under the Rivers State Ministry of Sports, to redeem the seven million naira reward.
They urged the governor to help them get their reward for emerging winner in the competition which ended November 15, 2024.
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They accused the FA of only taking a picture of them(Okrika United FC) displaying the seven million naira cheque without paying them their reward as stipulated.
Speaking in a telephone interview, one Mr. Charles C. Melford who introduced himself as the Assistant Coach of Okrika United explained that the, “sports was organised by the FA under the Rivers State Ministry of Sports and such a big competition because it’s tagged Simplified Cup it means that the governor of the state, our dear governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara is using this means to improve sports and then bring together youths from various LGA to make life meaningful and also scout for players to go to higher clubs and all that.
“It’s a thing of joy for every LGA to participate and Okrika LGA came out victorious against our brothers, our friends, our family; the Eleme LGA, we won them by 3-1.
“Then after the finals, it was so surprising the acting FA chairman presented a cheque of seven million naira to us, five million to Eleme who emerged runner up, and then three million for Andoni Local Government, till now we have not seen anything, they only used us to snap a picture, it’s over two weeks now; we played the finals on the 15th of November and till today we have not seen anything, no call from anywhere, we are trying to know what is happening through the SA nothing is happening, no information at all.
Melford expressed fear that “players could also go deviate when athletes, after the performance and then there is no reward for their hard work and most of these players have been in camp for over three months.
“We are begging the governor to please come to the aid of these Rivers youths who have demonstrated sportsmanship through his governance to call the FA and to also call the ministry of sports to redeem this trophy of seven million, five million, and three million respectively, to those who worked so hard to win it and players are on our neck believing that we have collected the money from the government and don’t want to be open to them. And then they can also attack us.”
