Second Vice President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amanze Uchegbulam, in this interview with ADEBOBOLA ALAWODE gave reasons why Lagos State was given the right to host the 2009 and the next edition of the newly rechristened Federations Cup.
Q: The Federation Cup, formerly called F.A Cup is back to Lagos again. What informed the decision?
A: This is a very good question. We had to move the 2009 edition of the Federation Cup to Lagos because the NFF approached different state governments and they all refused to host the tourney. What struck me most was the speed with which Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) approved the hosting right for us. Let me also state here that it was at a very short notice and the state still agreed to play host to the finals.
Q: The matches will be played at the newly refurbished Teslim Balogun Stadium, and the stadium is one of the venues slated for the Nigeria 2009 FIFA Under-17 World Cup, why the decision to use it for the finals?
A: As you know I’m the chairman of the Lagos Sub-seat of the Nigeria 2009 FIFA Under 17 World Cup, so we decided to use the matches to test run the facilities in preparation for the World Cup. We want to use the Federations Cup matches this Sunday to see how the World Cup would look like. If we can have a successful final and third place matches I see no reason why we can’t host the world.
Q: How prepared is Lagos for Sunday?
A: All modalities that will make Sunday’s matches a success have been put in place. The stadium is in a good state, the floodlights are also in good conditions to cut the long story short Lagos is 100% ready for Sunday.
Q: In terms of sales of tickets for the matches, where can interested fans get their tickets?
A: We have concluded plans to have ten stands inside the National Stadium, Surulere Lagos, where tickets would go on sale. We are not going to sell tickets in or around the Teslim Balogun Stadium. Interested fans should also know that if they are coming with their cars, they should park them inside the same National Stadium.
Q: The Federation Cup has no sponsor, why is it so?
A: Yes, it is so, because we had no sponsor. Coca-cola used to sponsor it, but since the contract we had with them elapsed in January this year, we were unable to get one, so we decided to go ahead with it not minding the sponsorship issue.
Q: How soon should we be expecting a new sponsor for subsequent editions of the Federation Cup?
A: In a couple of months we would announce another sponsor. We don’t want to rush things.
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