Izuchukwu Okosi
Chelsea manager, Thomas Tuchel has astonishingly revealed that he will not mind seeing his side lose today’s Carabao Cup final to Liverpool if that would ease the tension in Ukraine.
Chelsea is owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich who has close affinity with President Vladimir Putin and had faced increased pressure to relinquish ownership of his Premier League club following the attack on Ukraine by Russia in the past few days.
Abramovich who is unarguably one of the world’s wealthiest business moguls has consequently handed over the control of the club to the trustees of the Chelsea Charitable Foundation amid the political tension in Russia and Ukraine.
Around 90,000 fans are expected at Wembley, to watch the first domestic Cup final of the season, while millions of others will watch from across the world.
But the importance of the fixture pales into insignificance when one considers events in eastern Europe.
“Like, are we allowed to fully engage, fully celebrate? Or would it be inappropriate? This is how I feel about it because it’s so new and fresh. It’s a mixed feeling I have to say,” Tuchel told the press ahead of the game against Liverpool.
“I see the point but if you give it a second thought, how does it help now if we lose a football match given the situation that we have a war?
“This is simply not important enough and it will unfortunately not help. If it would, I am happy to lose the match,” the former Borussia Dortmund and PSG manager said.
The League Cup final will kick off at 5.30pm Nigerian time on Sunday evening.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
Follow Us