The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sports

  • Igiebor deported from Germany

    Igiebor deported from Germany

    Real Betis gaffer Pepe Mel could not count on the services of Nigeria international Nosa Igiebor for the away match against Espanyol yesterday, as the Super Eagles ace had already been sent back to Nigeria by German immigration authorities.

    On Saturday, Nosa departed Nigeria to join his Betis teammates in Barcelona, Spain ahead of the clash with Espanyol. But due to a bureaucratic problem, the German authorities did not allow him go down from his plane in Frankfurt on Saturday morning.

    Norwegian-Nigerian agent Atta Aneke provided an update on his client, who last night was on his way back to Nigeria to sort out the problem associated with his international passport.

    ”The truth is that on Saturday morning Nosa was stopped in transit in Frankfurt, Germany. Apparently, he needs some documents from the Spanish Embassy in Nigeria – a stay permit,” Aneke told allnigeriasoccer.com in a telephone conversation.

    This is not the first time Nosa has traveled out of Spain since his switch from Hapoel Tel Aviv last summer.

    Recall that the midfielder was part of the Super Eagles squad which beat Venezuela in an exhibition match only last November. But he did not encounter the same problem after the game in the United States.

    ”Not sure why this is a special case. Might be within a time frame he had to have processed the papers, or just met an immigration officer that was strict. Nosa is doing all he can to talk to the Spanish embassy for them to process the papers quickly so he can return to his team,” said Aneke.

    Real Betis have lost patience with Nosa Igiebor. Ghana international Wakaso Mubarak who represented his country at the African Cup of Nations returned to Spain on Thursday.

  • AFN checkmates elite athletes

    AFN checkmates elite athletes

    President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Solomon Ogba has stated that foreign based athletes who wish to represent the country in international events will no longer enjoy wild card entry from the AFN.

    “Foreign based athletes and those who get grants from the AFN should forget about representing Nigeria if they don’t meet the AFN standard of 10.15 secs (men) and 11.20 secs (women),” Ogba declared.

    According to Ogba there was no point encouraging such athletes again because the country is blessed with athletes whose potential need to be discovered through regular grassroots competitions.

    In this regard, the University of Port-Harcourt has pledged to give scholarships to Nigerian athletes who are exceptional.

    Making this declaration at the SWAN secretariat on Sunday afternoon, Ogba also announced the programme of events of the AFN for the year, just as he submitted that 2012 was indeed a remarkable year for the Federation.

    He noted that Nigerian athletes rank among the best in the world considering that they got to the semi-finals and finals of the 2012 Olympics held in London, while the AFN was able to produce the best athletes at the Africa Athletics Championships held in Porto Novo last year.

    Meanwhile, the Under-18 D.K Olukoya National Athletics Championships will be used to kick-start this year’s grassroots championship. In a chat with the Technical Director of the AFN, Navy Captain Omatseye Nesiama he warned that athletes who clock 18 years old by December 2013 would not be eligible to take part in the U-18 Olukoya championships.

  • Lulu to NFF: Verify our players’ ages

    Lulu to NFF: Verify our players’ ages

    Former Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President Sani Lulu Abdullahi has emphasised that for the euphoria of the Super Eagles’ victory in the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa to be sustained, the country must have a pool of talented players with verifiable ages at the disposal of the Coaches.

    Lulu, who spoke in Abuja at the weekend during the inauguration of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) of his pet project FOSLA Academy in Karshi, Abuja, said the victory of the Super Eagles is well deserved, as the team worked very hard to achieve the feat.

    He congratulated the Super Eagles for winning AFCON 2013 and the team’s Head Coach Stephen Keshi for his patriotism and zeal.

    The former FCT Director of Sports said that the objective of establishing the FOSLA Academy is to promote and sustain the high standard of football in Nigeria through the development of youth football and high level of education, and ensuring that accurate data as relates to ages of players are kept.

    “FOSLA Academy commenced academic activities in 2011 with 25 students out of which 23 students are on scholarship, and two fee-paying students. It was a huge dream but God has kept us till this very moment and we are on our second academic session with a total of 36 students (31 on scholarship and 5 fee-paying students). It is expected that when the school gets to the maximum of 600 students population, the sponsored students will be about 20%,” Lulu disclosed.

    He said that to achieve these objectives, the full support of relevant stakeholders, particularly the government, parents and immediate community are required to create the desired enabling environment for these students. Ealier, the Principal of the Academy, Josephine Ebhodaghe enumerated the achievements of the Academy within its short existence to include providing eight players to the FCT U-13 team that won the NFF U-13 Soccer Competition last year, and all the eight players penciled for invitation to the National U-13 team.

    In his remark, the Acting Chairman of the Academy, Dr. John Ogbadu said that the concept of the Academy is to serve as a pool for the various age-grade national teams to select good players with verifiable ages in the nearest future.

    Various dignitaries that graced the occasion, which was rounded off with a football match involving the players in the Acadeemy, include the FCT Director Musa Alim, FCT FA Chairman Musa Talle, among others.

  • Ozokwo, Lawal fall to Ehiosun’s Gençlerbirligi

    Ozokwo, Lawal fall to Ehiosun’s Gençlerbirligi

    Nigerian duo of Nduka Ozokwo and Raheem Lawal starred for Mersin Idmanyurdu in the 3-1 away loss to compatriot Ekigho Ehiosun’s Gençlerbirligi in the Super Lig week 22 fixture on Sunday 17 February.

    Ozokwo returned to the starting line-up for the coach Giray Bulak led side bagged 90 minutes of action but his contribution on the night could not save his side from getting whipped while Raheem Lawal came on as a second half sustitute to replace Ivan Souza in the 62nd minute.

    Ehiosun on the other was left on watched from the bench as his team mates saw off the visitors to hand them their third win in their last five matches in the Super Lig.

    Goals from Vleminckx, Durmaz and Ermin Zec ensured a comfortable home victory for Gençlerbirligi while Argentina’s Culio got a consolation for the visitors from a spot kick.

    The means the home side are pegged with Kalu Uche’s Kasimpasa at 30 points with a seven goal difference separating both teams at 8th and 7th spots respectively.

    Kasimpasa who are the surprise package of the season with eye on European competition have an outstanding game against Eneramo’s Sivasspor.

  • Celtic boss hails ‘wanted’ Ambrose

    Celtic boss hails ‘wanted’ Ambrose

    Celtic boss Neil Lennon has praised Efe Ambrose, who is now wanted by several clubs, for showing character against Dundee United.

    “I’ve got a lot of time for him, I’ve got a lot of faith in him,” Lennon told BBC Radio Scotland.

    “He just had a bad night [against Juventus]. He’s a terrific player and he’s got a lot of suitors out there already, but he wants to play here and you could see with his performance today (Saturday) that he wanted to rectify Tuesday night.”

    Lennon also saluted the entire team for dumping Dundee United 6-2 days after the big loss at home to Juventus in the Champions League.

    “I got a fantastic response. We have come a long, long way in a short space of time and the players showed their quality. We showed great reaction from conceding a poor goal from our point of view and Efe went up and showed loads of character,” said Lennon.

    “I’m delighted, everyone played well. My goalie looked back to his best. That’s one of our best performances at home but since the turn of the year our performances at home have been pretty spectacular and long may it continue.”

  • Delta terminates Stephen Keshi Stadium contract

    Delta terminates Stephen Keshi Stadium contract

    Delta State government has terminated the contract for the multi-million Naira Stephen Keshi (Formerly called Asaba Township) Stadium.

    The state governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, who announced this at the Asaba Manna Prayer and Anointing Service, said he has directed that the contract be re-awarded and completed within six months.

    Dr. Uduaghan explained that the contract was terminated to ensure the speedy completion of the stadium which has been re-named Stephen Keshi Stadium and avoid the project becoming a White Elephant one.

    The governor promised to complete all on-going projects and gave assurances that there would be no abandoned project in the state before he handed over in 2015.

    His words: “l have told God that l am not going to leave any abandoned project in this state. We have been having challenges with the contractors in charge of this stadium. It was about becoming an abandoned project but this will not happen because it will be completed soon.”

    He therefore invited the Founder of Our Daily Manna Devotional who officiated at the Asaba Manna Prayer and Anointing Service, Dr. Chris Kwakpovwe to pray against the spiritual inhibition stalling the progress of the project.

    Dr. Uduaghan regretted that a lot of people were hingeing the slow progress of work at the stadium on what they called the ‘cemetery issue’ attached to the location of the project and therefore enjoined the man of God to invoke the spirit of God on the stadium site to neutralise any negative spiritual inhibition.

    The governor enjoined Deltans that instead of criticising his inadequacies they should pray to God to give him strength to enable him move the state to a higher pedestal.

    He said that there was no one in the world who was perfect even as he said it was impossible to please everybody. He added that pleasing the world was a thing no one had achieved.

    He said: “ It is impossible to please everybody. I am not perfect, l have my weaknesses and inadequacies. So, instead of criticising me, pray to God to give me the capacity to do what is proper and good for the generality of Deltans so that we can move our state forward.”

    Uduaghan commended Deltans for their support especially the man of God, Dr. Kwakpovwe who he described as his spiritual father for their contributions towards the economic, spiritual and socio- political development of the state.

    Founder of the Daily Manna Devotional, Kwakpovwe commended governor Uduaghan for the economic transformation of the state especially the construction of the airport, roads and other infra-structure.

    He also commended the state governor for making it possible for the religious programme to be held in Asaba and prayed for God to protect all Deltans.

    With sand in his hand from the Stephen Keshi Stadium, Kwakpovwe prayed against any negative force stalling the completion of the stadium.

    His words: ”I bind and completely destroy every negative force holding back the progress of the Stephen Keshi Stadium. I bind all arrows pointing to destroy this good project and all negative tendencies will return to senders a thousand times.”

    A highlight of the occasion was when he called out the governor and his family for prayers especially for the 25th Anniversary of the marriage of the governor and his wife.

  • Ike Uche begins work at Villarreal

    Ike Uche begins work at Villarreal

    Villarreal CF striker, Ikechukwu Uche, has trained with the team having won the championship with the Nigerian team to the African Nations Cup in South Africa.

    The attacker is expected to continue with workouts at the Sports City, along with the players not invited to Alicante.

  • No Euro rush for Mba

    No Euro rush for Mba

    Rave of the moment, Super Eagles’ Sunday Mba has declared that he is not in a hurry to jet out to Europe to continue his professional football career.

    Mba told futaa.com in Lagos that he is still in celebration mood and has not sat down to mull over the myriad of offers reportedly on the table for him.

    “For now I don’t want to talk on any move, we are still on celebration. After that , I will talk with my family and see which one is best for me,” the AFCON two-goal hero told futaa.com.

    Mba indeed confirmed that the offers have been coming in torrents for him but he also avoided answering if he is a Rangers player or Warri Wolves man.

    “I can’t say anything on that for now, it’s something confidential, ” the 19-year old midfielder simply offered.

    While in Lagos, Mba and his teammates were given N1m each by the Lagos State Governor. The shinning ambassador of the local league is also due for an extra N1m after the governor announced that a sum of N500, 000 will be paid for each goal scored.

  • NFF: We never planned to sack Keshi

    NFF: We never planned to sack Keshi

    The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has dismissed insinuations and dark innuendoes in sections of the media that it had planned to sack Super Eagles’ Head Coach, Stephen Keshi at the Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa.

    Chairman of the NFF Media and Publicity Committee, Emeka Inyama said at the weekend that the Federation had not bothered to dignify the insinuations with any response before now as it considered those rumours to be of such low quality undeserving of any attention.

    “If an employer sits down with an employee to review performance, with focus on better output, that does not amount to threat of sack. In the civilised world, that happens every other day.

    “The NFF never planned to sack Keshi as the Head Coach or the technical crew in its entirety. The Executive Committee is made up of decent and responsible Nigerians and we have respect for our employees and their contracts.”

    Inyama lamented the desperation by some persons to discredit the NFF after the team had emerged triumphant in South Africa.

    “We do not have anything against people jumping on the train of success after the Super Eagles became champions of Africa. Success has many fathers (and mothers). But it is uncharitable to try and take anything away from the Federation that worked day and night to achieve the success.

    “The NFF employed Stephen Keshi in the first place, gave him the motivation and incentives, and arranged friendly matches against Botswana, Zambia, Angola, Liberia, Egypt, Peru, Niger, Venezuela, Catalonia, Cape Verde and some European clubs to give the boys necessary exposure and tough courage. We got the team to Portugal for final training camp before receiving part of the money approved for the competition.

    “We paid the coaches the salaries owed them before the tournament, and till end of January. That does not show an employer that wants to dispense with an employee.”

    Inyama wondered why some persons are suddenly desperate to take some credit away from the NFF for the triumph.

    “The truth is that if the team had failed, it would have been the NFF’s neck on the chopping block. Now that it has succeeded, people are clawing at just anything to try and discredit the NFF. This is not only unfair, it is unacceptable.”

    Inyama insisted that the NFF had already put the triumph behind it and is focusing hard on the challenges ahead, including the FIFA World Cup qualifiers and the FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil in June.

    “We have so much to look forward to and plan for. The match against Kenya is next month and then the other National Teams have continental and global competitions ahead. We have the measure of all these and by God’s grace, we’ll win several more trophies for Nigeria this year and the next.”

  • UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE ROUND OF 32: Taiwo: Dynamo must beat Bordeaux in France

    UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE ROUND OF 32: Taiwo: Dynamo must beat Bordeaux in France

    Former Super Eagles defender, Taiye Taiwo says he’s sure his Ukrainian side can beat Bordeaux in the second leg of the UEFA Europa League round of 32 2nd leg tie in France.

    The Nigerian, who was speaking on his team’s prospects of making it to the next round of Europe’s second tier inter-club championship haven drawn 1-1 with the French Ligue 1 team last Thursday, made this known.

    “It was very hard,” he began, speaking of a previous encounter. “We tried to win, by doing everything possible to achieve a positive result. We had a lot of chances, but unfortunately we were not able to convert them.”

    Speaking further, he continued: “In the next game, we need to be more focused if we want to win.

    “Bordeaux is playing at home, so they will try to please their fans. Although it will be hard, we have to win.

    “We have a great team with a great coach. I am confident that we will be able to progress to the next round.”