I wish for the right partnership to revive, restructure Imo Angels Football Club­ —Jennifer Anusiem

Jennifer Anusiem, a fashion designer and event planner, is the Chief Executive Officer of Imo Angels Football Club Owerri. In this interview with JOHNKENNEDY UZOMA, she speaks about female football, being the sole owner of a female football team, challenges and growth among other issues.

What is your assessment of female football in Nigeria?

Right now, female football clubs are actually upgrading, unlike what we had in the past. When I started in 2020, it gave birth to other clubs in the state such as First Mahi, Imo Strikers Babes, amongst others. I don’t know if the rest continued but that motivated me to own a female football club. So right now, from league level, we are seeing upgrading and generally, female club is something people say is still on the low level. But I don’t see it that way.  My assessment is that female club has come up to the limelight and it’s something we all look forward to, I get excited when watching the girls at the World Cup. I know that even right now many people have started having different mindset about female football club. Many will be interested to watch the Super Falcon than the Super Eagles. You can’t compare the money spent on the girls and the boys but what we need now is to harmonise things and move in a professional way so that our girls will attract value in the society.

What is the inspiration behind the setting up a female football club at a time no one is interested?

I actually started the female football club in 2016; it was during my visit to my village for Christmas celebrations. I discovered that everybody was interested in playing football and everyone that returned home for Christmas was donating trophy for male competition and the girls were left behind. So touched by this, I decided to do something because I noticed there was a gap in the women side. Then I started from the grassroot to the state and this happened as far back in 2016. I started to make a change by hosting the female tournament in my village, Obowo in Obowo LGA of Imo State.

With that, every year the girls will look forward to playing at the tournament and that showed us that those girls were ready and willing to take their football career to a greater and higher level but they lacked a platform to showcase their talent and skills. After running the club for three years under my NGO, I realised the need to bring the female club to limelight. In 2020 at the state level, we formed Imo Angels Football Club, having seen the experience and capacity in the girls at the rural areas. At that time, there were no female team or female club that was active at the state level. So, Imo Angels came as a Messiah for the girls in Imo State. That was how we started and we tried our best by bringing the girls to limelight.

As I speak with you, few of them were invited to the national team as of 2020-2021. Some of them were also invited at the Under-20 and Under-17. The records are there. What I did was change the narrative and pave way for gender equality. Let people know that if men can play football, women can play as well. I know that today everyone is proud of the girls.

How easy has the journey been, especially bringing the girls under one roof for football business?

Actually, when we came on board, it was so easy. We had the attention of the media, especially the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and some Radio Stations in Owerri. It appeared as if people were already waiting for who will start it and who will bring those girls together. I did not actually know what was really going on then, although I was led by my spirit to start the female club, unknown to me, that a lot of people were hungry to get that platform to showcase their talent.

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When we started the publicity, it got the attention of everybody from both across the state and Local Government Areas to come for screening held at Old Stadium, Owerri. A lot of girls came for screening and because of mega resources, we could not take all. We streamlined to take the number of girls we could manage.

What about feeding and taking proper care of the players?

It was what we needed to do to take good care of the girls so that they will be happy. The welfare of players was paramount to the club. It is what any club should not joke with. Because God forbid, if any of them breaks down, what will you say or do? Because we are not paying salaries and don’t have funds to pay salaries, but we try to take care of them. Then we camped the players and was providing them with feeding. We were also providing them with pads because of their mensuration circle. Even their health was also part of what we took into consideration to enable them to be strong to play. I don’t really know how other clubs do their own but for me I do those things to take care of the players. I know that I did my best to cater for their needs. Of course, you cannot cater for all but if you can get 70%, you have done a lot. Indeed, it was not an easy thing.

We tried to look for sponsorship and the wife of the Governor of Imo State Barr. Chioma Uzodimma came in, including the Commissioner for Women Affairs. They came in to assist in the areas of food items and house materials like blanket amongst other things. We also had fans and friends that also supported the club onone occasion or the other. And we do really appreciate those that came to their aide because we know how demanding and tasking these things can be.

What is the current position of the club?

The current position of the club is that we are on break, hoping that we will move on again. I recall that at the time when we played FA Cup, we played it and we represented the state alongside the Heartland Queens FC because then it was only two clubs that was qualified to represent the state. So, we represented the state, though we did not go too far. We got to the knock-out level and we could not proceed. On return, we had issues on accommodation and we could not get it and that led to our going for break. Meanwhile, some of the players had joined other club sides where they are currently doing well.

When we started in 2020, we made bold steps to attend a pre-season tournament played at Ogun State. We came back with a trophy and when we presented it to Imo FA, they told us we were the first female football club to win the trophy. Hearing that gave us more encouragement to do more.

Would you continue if you get funds?

Yes, I will. Everybody that knows me as somebody that will always advocate for female club. I wish I can get the right partnership to revive and restructure Imo Angles Football Club. We have more girls at the grassroots level than the male. Even as we pursed, I do receive calls from all over the places, even from those I do not know. Most time when I receive the calls, I feel so emotional, and I don’t have anything to tell them. So, it’s something I would like to back to revive. As it stands, we have Imo Angels Sports Academy for kids within the age bracket of four to 12 for boys and girls.

What is your advice to female footballers?

The truth is that football has to do with passion. If you don’t have passion, you will not know how to play, but if you have it, you can play. And to do it, you have to package yourself starting from the grassroots clubs and being under a coach who will harness your talent.

I will encourage the girls not to hide their gifts or skills. Rather, they should make it open and keep on pushing. They should also be prayerful and always show themselves.