Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion is raising a formidable Football club to cater for the physical and spiritual well-being of the youth. It is named Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion Football Club CONAC FC.
This is an offshoot of the blistering Joshua Generation International Youth Conference which is an annual youth conference for all young persons who want to discover their purpose and take up the mountain of influence being organized by the Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion.
At the recent General Synod of the Church, the Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion announced the appointment of the Coordinating Bishop of CONAC FC the Rt. Revd. Olusola Akanbi who is the bishop of Offa Diocese and a footballer himself. He talked about the team’s readiness to kick off their journey with a strong spiritual foundation in the coming months.
Bishop Akanbi while speaking on an Advent Cable Network Nigeria Television ACNNTV morning program, “Now Streaming Sports Show,” shared details about the club’s preparations when he disclosed that both players and coaches were undergoing discipleship and mentoring orientation currently.
These initiatives he said were designed to “nurture and enhance their spirituality, to ensure that the team is not only physically prepared but also spiritually grounded.
“Our assignment is a holistic one, both the body and the soul. It is not a matter of; my soul belongs to God, my body belongs to me so I can use it the way I like. For us, we all believe that the Spirituality of the Players is also very important and as I am speaking with you, we have Professor Duro Adegboye, the Visioner of the Gospel on the move, taking them through discipleship training. We are set physically; we are set spiritually. It’s a complete assignment.” he declared.
Looking ahead, the bishop elaborated on the team’s future plans, focusing on the strategic development and recruitment of additional players as a commitment to long-term growth and success.
‘’We don’t, for now, envisage buying players, we have enough grounds to cover. For example, in the Anglican Church in Nigeria, we have 14 Provinces and in each of these Provinces, we have nothing less than 10 dioceses. So we have over 150 dioceses in Nigeria, we have enough ground to cover, we have enough youth out of which we can get the best.
“So we will from time to time go to dioceses and Provinces to recruit Players. We are also planning to start our Football Academy from where we can generate Players for the team.
Bishop Akanbi explained further that “ It is not only football that we will concentrate on, under the Joshua Generation of the Church of Nigeria, we have other sporting activities; like Volleyball, Table Tennis, Hockey, and Others”.
“So we are going into other sporting activities to make sure that what we are doing is not just based on football but also on other sports. Again I want to assure you that very soon we will bring the female part of it, you know, in our churches, you will discover that women and girls are more, so we will also have a plan for the female team of the Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion and this will be coming on board very soon.”
Already CONAC FC has started playing some trial matches one was against Ajayi Crowther University Football Team which they trounced 5 goals to 0, another one was 4-0 against a top rated team in Offa, Oyanisuwa FC and they also trashed another team Focus FC Offa with a lone goal. The team still have two extra matches to play before this camping and orientation program ends by Saturday 2nd of December, 2023.
