Otunba Tajudeen Olajide Akinyemi is the Chairman of Ondo State Football Agency (ODSFA). He spoke with Femi Atolagbe, on the activities, success story and other related issues in the agency.

 Excerpts:

Can we meet you sir?

My name is Otunba Tajudeen Olajide Akinyemi, I am from Owo, in Owo local government area of Ondo State but I stayed in Norway for 37years as a Football administrator.

Since your assumption in office as the chairman of Ondo State Football Agency (ODSFA), what have been your activities and success story?

When I came on board, it was rough, it was rough in sense that as an agency you were given between about one hundred and twenty million to Eighty million naira subvention every month, but now reduced to thirty million to manage the agency , despite that we are still going on well.

We have three units of Sunshine Stars, Sunshine Queens and Rising stars , the Rising stars is a feeders team of Sunshine Stars. The Rising Stars are playing in NNLO and they are now to play, playoff to promote to NNL. We hope to win the NNLO playoff in Markurdi any time we are called upon to earn our promotion to NNL, and that is a very good success to the agency, I think.

Our Sunshine Queens are number one on the women league table, and the league is about to conclude the rest matches, we have some less matches to be able to know may be we are going to be crowned the winner of the women league .For Sunshine Stars , though we are on number eighteen in the league table now, and I believe everybody in Ondo State know that three points was deducted from our points, if that three points was there, we should be number nine on the table, nevertheless, we have very good success in this three units and we hope to keep on . Our ladies are doing fantastically fine.

For Sunshine Stars we are ready. If the league starts today we are ready. Though where we are today on the table does not belong to us at all, again we have been trying to see that we have young players all over the whole state, the indigenes who have been playing very well and we have constituted a committee to monitor the secondary school competition that is going to start next week so that we can be able to pick some good players from there, so that they will be incorporated into the Rising Stars, from there promoted to Sunshine Stars. So this is exactly what we are doing .

Is the three points you said were deducted, deducted out-rightly or suspended?

Yes it was suspended , but you know, I was in Russia during the just concluded World Cup,  while I was there I met most of the people in the LMC and I told them ,we need our three points , I told them we don’t know those who pelted the match officials during one of our home matches. Ordinarily, we cannot be penalised for it, it is not justified to do something like that to us, and they told me that I should come to Abuja and defend myself but we are still waiting for the league to commence so we can travel to Abuja and tell them we need our three points to place our team on number nine on the table where we really belong.

But because of the reckless action of some  spectators in the stadium who threw ice-block on the referee , three points were removed and suspended from our points ,which placed us on 19th position in the log.

How did you achieve this feat with less subvention compared to what it used to be in the past?

The facts remained that in the past, they have much money to use, but to me money is not everything. Becoming successful has to do with the management. Football management is the most important thing. Sunshine team has gone to continental cup before , but this is my first year and I am looking forward to go to continental, I will bring my experience as a Norway trained football administrator to bear in the agency.

My predecessors in office were indebted to so many people, they did not pay them before they left, it is me that is paying some of the debts now, and this is not too good , because we still need to take care of matches and a lot of other things. Though I am paying those money now, like what they normally say, that when you are there you  inherit assets and liabilities together, I am paying that every month, even some people took us to LMC for litigation and we are paying and we are still doing very good .

You talk about continental ticket , what is your agency doing in terms of motivating the players of Sunshine Stars, Queens, Rising Stars and their officials to achieve the set goals?

We motivate them. In fact, we make players motivation our priority. Let me start from the bottom, the Rising Stars, we motivate them by giving them promotion. About five of them will be graduating to Sunshine Stars next season, two of them will be going for National Under 20 team, another two for Under 17 team. These are the things we do. We took their salary from fifteen thousand to thirty thousand naira monthly, which is what we have been doing to about thirty five of them that are with us.

Concerning the Sunshine Queens, two of them represented the Women National Under 20 at the just concluded World Cup in France. Our team coach, Wemimo Matthew is the Falcon coach too, so we created the platform for them to thrive. Since I came on board as the chairman of the agency, I have been paying salaries as and when due and I have been doing a lot of things for them, we changed their hostel, whenever they complain that their hostel is not habitable we change it for them. As for Sunshine Stars, we increased the salaries of some of them  to seven hundred thousand naira monthly. Averagely, some of them are on four hundred thousand naira monthly salary; we motivate our team to a fault.

How about the recruitment process in the agency?

The approach of the recruitment at the beginning before I came on board was wrong. In different positions like midfield, defence, goal keeping and attack were not balanced, it was done by one Coach called Duke Udi, when he was asked to step aside, then all the board members were able to get involved in the recruitment and we recruited very good players for the team. People could see our last two home matches that the outcome was a very good success, because of good players we were able to recruit. People can see that we are doing well. Aside one or two of them who are injured now, otherwise we are battle ready for the league any day it starts.

What is the plan of the agency to develop football in Ondo State?

Our plan is that we want to catch them young that is the first thing on our mind, that is why we take our Rising Stars Football Academy team very serious, we are going to organise secondary school football competition to pick good players without tired legs, so as to bring them to the Rising Stars, from there to Sunshine Stars. So these are things we want to do and make sure we have impact in Nigeria. We want to contribute in the national side, we want to sell our players to National and International for signing, to achieve this, we need to do a lot technically, financially and otherwise and that is what we are pushing now.

What is the agency doing to woo investors for the sponsorship of your teams?

You see, any team that does not have investor would not go the way they want it to be. When I came in, Glo mobile promised to promote our team with seven hundred and fifty million naira but till today we are still waiting. We have not got it. We have sent out marketing scout to see that they can be able to give us investors , we are  still on it , we have not gotten any yet, we are optimistic of getting one or two in due course, despite that we are thankful that the money we get from government , we are able to manage it very well.

How is the relationship between your agency and the Ondo State FA?

We have a good relationship, we are in touch and we normally pay our dues. as a football agency you must pay your dues to the FA. We are doing our best to pay every year or monthly. It may not regular, but we are doing our best to pay We are together, we have no issue with our FA at all.

What is your take on the action of the Nigeria Super Eagles Coach, Gernot Rohir by neglecting local league players in his squad?

As one of the stakeholders in Nigeria, I think that is not too good from him. I think he should have considered some good players from the local league, but for not doing so, is a job for him, he knows what is right for him, and we must understand that. Ordinarily if he want to do it right he was supposed to take at least five players from the local league, but for not doing that, we cannot crucify him for that. Let him do whatever he want to do, but the final result is what we are after.

That we want to go to Cameroun for the Nations Cup is the first thing he need to do, not only going there to participate but to even win the Trophy like we did in 2013.

What are your words of assurance to the fans of Sunshine stars, that they will make their fans happy when the league resume?

I can beat my chest for that, by God’s grace Sunshine stars we will be putting smile to the faces of their fans, I know we have a lot of fans within and outside the state, I’m assuring them that we are  going to make them happy , we have quality players that can change the tide for us, although the resumption of the league is still hanged in balance, if it eventually we resume, we will do everything humanly possible to see that we get out of relegation , that is sure. And if otherwise next season will be a great season for us.