Chief Ike Okorafor, the Director of Sports and Chairman of the Sports Management Committee of the 2024 IASC / Providus Bank Achievers’ Cup has explained the inner workings that has cumulated into the success recorded so far in the 2024 edition of the Island All Stars football competition, Sports247 reports.
Ike Okorafor in an exclusive interview with Sports247.ng opens up on the hard work behind the scene after the conclusion of Matchday 2 where Team Prossy defeated Team Candl by 3-0 and Team T-Gold defeated Team Kendoriz by 2-0 as the competition continued to run without any hitch.
” When things are going well everyone forgets the hard work behind the success” Ike told Sports247.
He went further : ” it has not been easy .we had sleepless nights, we come to work even when others are in their comfort zone or enjoying themselves at home but we give all the glory to God.All the things work out as planned. Nobody has wounded, nobody has received rough tackles or been hospitalized. we are grateful to God.”
He also gave some of the accolades to the sponsors, supporters, club owners and members of the club for their cooperation .
” Thumbs up to our sponsors and the team owners that have put their resources into it in this economic situation it’s not easy to bring out millions because of sport”.
He however agreed there is still room for improvement as the competition continues and opens up on the challenges they encountered while preparing for the football fiesta.
” My team tried our best, nothing can be perfect there is always room for improvement and we want to do it better next time.”
” The challenges are how to organize the people, make them respect simple laws, the human aspect of it is hard.”.
Ike also spoke and they were able to cut off the use of mercenaries or non members to gain undue advantage by the teams as the competition is only open to registered members of the club as players of the different teams.
” We have to bring very tough zero tolerance to make sure that things work well.”
“There is zero tolerance for the club to bring machinery, we use our team register so no can decisive us, the lady in charge is from the secretariat, she has the details of everyone.” Ike Okoroafor explained.
The IASC/Providus Bank Achievers Cup will continue this weekend on Saturday with Matchday 3 as the four teams will be on parade to seek for more point before the final day which is slated for December 14, 2024.
