Governor Diri rewards Bayelsa Queens over winning CAF Champions League bronze

By Wale Mustapha

Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri, has rewarded officials and players of Bayelsa Queens FC for their impressive outings at the just concluded CAF Women’s League, CAFWCL held in Rabat, Morocco.

Governor Diri who announced the cash rewards for the team on Wednesday at the Executive Council Chambers in Government House, Yenagoa said 21 of the first team players would receive N1 million each while the 14 reserve players would get N500,000 each.

He also announced a sum of #1.1million for the Technical Adviser, N500,000 each for Assistant coaches, support staff N300,000 each while all the board members would get N1.5 million.

The Governor who made a personal donation of $4,000 to the team in fulfilment of his promise for reaching the quarter final directed that the cash rewards be released to the team before the end of November.

The Governor noted that the team has justified the resources the state government committed to the competition and also made theAccording to him, by their performance, they made the state and the country proud.

“You have proven that Nigeria is indeed a football country and that we are not a push over when it comes to football in Africa and indeed the world. The image of the state is largely being imprinted in female football in Nigeria, West Africa and in Africa. You have made the state and country proud by bringing home the bronze medal.”

While expressing gratitude to Premium Trust Bank for supporting the team with a donation of N50 million and provision of jerseys, the state’s helmsman urged the private sector to emulate the gesture towards supporting sports development in the state.

“I like to call on the private sector to come in to support sports development and in particular the game of football in the state just like Premium Trust Bank did by donating N50 million and jerseys to the team.”

The governor charged the Commissioner for Youth and Sports to fine-tune mistakes made during the competition and immediately commence preparations for the next CAF competition with the mind to win the gold trophy.

Diri said his administration would continue to support sports development and urged youths to take advantage of sporting activities to eke out a living rather than allowing themselves to be used as political thugs or get involved in drug addiction.

Earlier in his remarks, the Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, Daniel Igali, noted that the Nigerian champions finished third in the tournament after they secured a 1-0 win against Simba FC of Tanzania in their third-place match.

He stated that Bayelsa Queens also emerged as the best entertaining and well behaved team and received the Fair Play award in addition to $150,000 after losing 0-1 in the semi-final against ASFAR of Morocco.

The Sports Commissioner expressed appreciation to the governor for the support to the team that enabled them achieve the feat and stressed the need to keep the players together in order to do better in the next tournament.

Highpoint of the event was the presentation of the third place trophy and medal to the governor by the Sports Commissioner, chairman of the Bayelsa Queens board, Robin Apreala, deputy captain of the team, Juliet Sunday, and the head coach, Domo Okara.