Nigeria Professional
Football League (NPFL) club, Rivers United FC have commenced preparations for
the 2016/17 football season. Players and officials
converged at the Yakubu Gowon Stadium, the home ground of the club, on Tuesday
morning for the team’s first training session ahead of the new season.
The session lasted for
exactly 90 minutes and was supervised the chief coach, Willy Udube.
Rivers State Sports
Commissioner, Honourable Boma Iyaye, who watched the session and charged
players and officials to maintain ‘a high level of discipline’ ahead of a
potentially demanding season.
“On behalf of the sponsor
of the team, the Rivers State Government, I want to welcome you back from your
vacation. However, this is not time
for hard work and I want to charge you all to realize that you are ambassadors
of Rivers State and Nigeria as you will be representing this country in the
2017 Caf Champions League. I urge you all to display
a high level of discipline and focus as you look to do Rivers State and Nigeria
proud in the upcoming season,” he said.
Responding, club captain,
Festus Austine promised that the players would work hard always and they look
to justify the confidence reposed in them.
“We want to thank you
Honourable Commissioner for your Fatherly advice and also want to use this
opportunity to express our appreciation to the Rivers State Government for the
continued support to the club.We will not relent ahead
of the new season as we look to put smiles on the faces of Rivers people and
Nigerians in general,” he said.
Meanwhile, General Manager
of the club, Chief Okey Kpalukwu confirmed that a few of the players are still
expected but assured that there would be a full house by Wednesday.
“I want to urge the few
players who have not yet turned up to do so without any further delay. Our time for preparations
is quite short and we will need a full house before the next training session
on Wednesday,” he said.
Rivers United finished in
second place in last season’s NPFL and will represent Nigeria in the 2017 Caf
Champions League.
No comments:
Post a Comment