Notable club Owner and business magnet, Emmanuel Udeogu, President Dominion Hotspur FC, who also doubles as the Chairman of United Football Championship (UFC), one of the renowned grassroot tournaments in Nigeria, has revealed that going into football was one of his best decisions which he has no regrets doing so.
Udeogu opened up during an interview with our Editor recently at the Legacy pitch, Surulere, Lagos.
According to the soft -spoken Anambra state -born gentleman, he has experienced it all in football – the high, the low and the worse. But in all; the passion he has for the game remains his driving force and the need not to abandon his many players who look up to him for direction, is the reason he won’t quit.
He recounted how his player who returned from Czech Republic for documents for his work permit slumped and died after their training session. This got him shattered and almost made him throw in the towel.
His words: “it all started like a child’s play after my secondary education at Enugu state, Okunanu Boys High school to be precise. I came to Lagos to do business thereafter. I was doing very well in Building Materials but my passion for the game will always drive me to host competitions for the different blocks in the market.
“This continued and gave birth to the first Traders cup in Lagos, hosted by the then Sports Minister, Air Commodore Emeka Omerua (Late) and sponsored by Pepsi.
“We represented Coker Building Materials Market. Our colleagues from Alaba market, Balogun, Idumota, ASPAMDA, Tejuosho all participated. We emerged as runners up behind Alaba which beat us in the final.
“We got to the final again in the second edition but triumphed against Idumota this time around. This gave birth to Dominion Hotspur FC which began with players from the market, streets, schools etc”, he said
Udeogu however admitted that his successes in football came when he began to pay more attention to the club more than he was doing to his Building materials business
“When I started paying about 70% of my time to the club, things began to happen, even though my business suffered greatly as a result of this.
“We reached the semi final of the Lagos FA cup but lost on penalties to Spartans of Agege.
“We had our first player, Lanre Olarenwaju Kayode exported to Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv. Followed by the likes of Bernard Okoronwanta, Nduka Nwanne, Andrew Nworgu.
“We had a second generation players like Stanley Ogu, Elijah Benedict who both play in Portugal. There is also Etim Friday who was initially in Portugal but has now moved to FC Midtjylland in Denmark and another player, Israel playing in Romania.
“There’s the younger ones that just moved to Czech Republic which tragedy struck when one of them that returned for his work permit slumped and died after our training.
“I don’t really know what exactly happened but it was devastating to us. I almost quit but because of the other players with us I mustered courage to continue.
“Today we have Sobowale Ibrahim in the same Czech Republic and Adams who just signed in Austrian league.”, he concluded.
Dominion Hotspur also have players in NPFL club like Remo, 3SC amongst others.