Immediate past First Vice President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Chief Mike Umeh has described as self-serving, insinuations that he had not achieved anything in his two terms in office as Chairman of Anambra State Football Association. Umeh who is still gunning for another term in this chat with Jacob Ajom speaks of his achievements. Excerpts:

Why do you want to return as Anambra FA Chairman and what are your selling points having been there for two terms?

I still have n unfinished business to attend to. That is why I want to return as chairman of Anambra football. As for the selling points, contrary to what people are insinuating regarding my tenure, I have achieved a lot for Anambra football. During my tenure, Anambra State had three clubs in the Premier League. These were Udoji United, Jasper United and Gabros International Football Club. All these are privately owned; only in Anambra State did we see this in Nigeria.

Football is an expensive venture, two of the clubs crumbled, leaving only Gabros, which has been taken over by Chief Ifeanyi Ubah.

Why did the clubs crumble?

We lacked facilities such as standard stadiums, where teams could train and perfect their strategies until Rojenny(which is not a FIFA standard pitch) came to the rescue. Another factor that worked against the survival of the clubs was the harsh operational environment which could only be withstood by government owned clubs. Most privately run clubs in the country wound up. So it was not peculiar to Anambra State.

With my coming in, I was able to attract my friends in the private sector to come in and support our efforts. Gabriel Chukwuma, owner of Gabros is one of those who have been very persistent, and with the necessary support, he has been able to return to the top flight of Nigerian football during my time and has a standard stadium where the team plays their home matches.

My regime was also able to attract Chief Polycarp Emenike, chairman of Neros Pharmaceuticals. He built a fantastic stadium in his home town, Nnaka in Anambra State. I was able to talk him into sponsoring the state football league.

Anambra State has the best sponsored football league in the country, where winners get a whopping N5million, runners up get N3million while the third placed team takes home N2million. Chief Polycarp also allows us use the stadium. We have been able to host the national U-17, U-20 and U-23 football teams friendly matches at the stadium.

We also have encouraged many other sponsors to the state who organise matches at the local government and town union levels, particularly during festive periods.

We ran the secretariat for all this period without govern-ment subvention.

You were accused of abandoning Anambra FA during your period at the NFF?

During my short spell at the NFF, I was able to attract the FIFA Goal Project to my state. The only other state that had that facility is Bauchi state.

Why do you want to return to an office government does not give subvention to? What is the interest?

We still have a lot of plans underway. With the coming of Chief Ifeanyi Ubah who has taken over Gabros(now known as Ifeanyi Ubah United) the sky is the limit, particularly as he is the vice chairman of the state FA board. What is important in football is continuity. That is what obtains in Enugu, Abia and Imo states.

So why the so much noise about Umeh returning in Anambra State? Then think of Blatter, Hayatou who have been incharge of FIFA and CAF for long and still contesting to continue. Anambra State cannot be an exception. I have the passion, the zeal and the know how to propel Anambra football to the next level.