Category: Sports

In line with the rule guiding association football, the Golden Eaglets on Friday had a first feel of the synthentic pitch of Stade Mamadou Konate in the Kouluba district of Bamako.

The stadium which is named after the country’s first Deputy Pr esident post colonial rule overlooks the Kouluba Hill Presidential lodge and would be venue of Sunday’s 2013 African Under-17 all-important qualifier between the Golden Eaglets and Junior Eagles of Mali.

Friday’s training was held at around noon when the searing Bamako sun is at its peak, the team’s mandatory second trainning on an artificial surface ahead of the game would be held on Saturday.

The stadium which was refurbished by FIFA in 2002 is the country’s Goal Project site and its director. Monsieur I. Konate said it serves as an alternative when the traditional 26 March Stadium is not available.

Assistant coach Nduka Ugbade said the texture of the pitch would not affect the tactical play of the team, adding that the players would cope well.

“The pitch is okay and it is not as heavy if compared with the synthetic pitch in Abuja and as such, it would suit us well,” noted the foremost Golden Eaglets’ captain.”Of course, the pitch is hot as expected of any synthetic pitch but we know exactly what we are going to do on Sunday.”

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has started the process of securing Sidney Sam to play for the Super Eagles, supersport.com can report.

But the process to win Sam’s international switch is expected to take full swing after the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa.

The football federation’s move is still at the primary stage of collating vital documents to kick-start the switch of the Bayer Leverkusen winger.

“On our path we have started the process of the switch. But it is not cast in stone because the whole process is always cumbersome. When they ask for documents and you submit such, you will find out later that they will request for more. And you just have to keep meeting such demands till the player gets cleared.

“From our own end we will collate all necessary documents to speed up the process. But remember that he (Sam) played for the German youth team so they (the German FA) will have to write (FIFA) saying Sidney has agreed to play for Nigeria. It was the same tough routine we had for Shola (Ameobi) and Victor (Moses) but let’s concentrate on the present.

“So there’s no way the NFF is stalling on speeding up the process of allowing any player switch their international allegiance in the shortest possible time,” said the NFF Assistant Director, Media, Ademola Olajire.

Earlier in November, Sam was quoted by Kicker that he had a “very harmonious, good and convincing talk” with Keshi. Sam also underlined why he has opted to play for his father’s country despite being born in Kiel, Germany.

“There were intense discussions and I am keen to play for Nigeria. The country (Nigeria) has a great football tradition, the team is full of good players,” Kicker quoted Sam as saying.

Sam’s adviser, Dirk Hebel, is expected to play a key part in helping the winger switch his international career to Nigeria.

Discovering an oil well involves a lot of work and resources this much is known because such investment in the discovery and eventual drilling of the oil well does not come without a great benefit to the explorers or owners of the new oil well. The extent of our interest in the development of our sporting sector will go a long way in addressing the accrued benefit from the sector for key investors. Unlike in the case of an oil well, sports does not portend any environmental degradation nor pollution rather it serves as a catalyst for economic growth, promotion of peace and enhancement of human dignity.

As I remunerate over the Nigerian sport system I cannot help but ask why and where we failed to get it right all these years? Where did we miss the point or where was our point of departure. I have also observed that over the years we seem to have confined ourselves to a cyclic movement whereby we keep doing the same thing year in year out. Beautiful innovations and creativity are only seen on paper but never has it been matched with a corresponding action.

We seem to have lost the connection between theory and practice and have also jettisoned the need of collaborative involvement with our various sport departments in our tertiary institutions who yearly present graduates in sport related field who embarked during their studies in qualitative research on sports in Nigeria. There is therefore the need for us to approach sport development in Nigeria with the same attention that we are currently giving to other critical sectors like agriculture, oil, communications and power. We jointly need to develop proper and genuine structures that will be able to drive the process of creating a new dawn for sports in Nigeria.

There is the need for us to make do with the abundant research findings and committee recommendations on sports development in Nigeria by classifying them into workable and achievable targets and timelines with the determination to drive it through to logical conclusion. Nigeria have the raw materials and expertise to transform this sector into a billion naira sector which will in turn serve as a very high yielding sector that will contribute to the national economic viability of the nation.

Achieving the above feat will require a clearly defined pattern devoid of sentiments composed of experts and selected technocrats who will be mandated in ensuring the comprehensive development of a workable and achievable sport development agenda.

A look at the opening ceremony of the National Sport Festival tagged Eko 2012 one cannot but relish the expectation as captured on the faces of the youths who were all engaged in ensuring that a great hosting was achieved by the organizers further enquiry reveals that the local organizing committee engaged the services of volunteers and ad-hoc staffers but the bottom line is the share experience of the economic benefit of sport in the life of a nation.

We have seen youths most of whom are jobless, been positively engaged irrespective of their qualification or area of professionalism this is the power of sport that I talk about when I say that sport transcends the mere spectacle of just play into that of an active economic indicator. There is no better way to engage the youths than through sports participation either as athletes or as service providers.

The aforementioned cannot be effectively executed without the contribution of sport management professionals however it is regrettable to note that over the years nothing much has been done by our sport professionals despite the tremendous and abundant knowledge that is available in our various sport departments across the numerous tertiary institutions in Nigeria we have not been able to see nor witness a translation of the various works by these professionals into reaand practical terms

Permit me to say that sport professionals need to be more proactive and visible in the national sport discuss they need to come out from their enclosures and demonstrate the correlation between theory and practice as it affects sport development programmes. They need to be bold enough to engage the current managers of sport through progressive means on how best to address the impending problems militating against sport development in Nigeria.

I am very much aware that we have sport management experts who consult for other countries, we have renowned sport scholars some of whom at one time or the other were named an Olympic Scholar these are people whose capacity have been tested and are trusted because of their high display of technical ability, efficiency and high integrity. Their various contributions through knowledge enhancement in sport cannot be quantified but we need to harness all these potentials in a manner that will enable us utilize the various expertise for the general good of sport development in Nigeria

The Encouragement of professionals to come out of their comfort zone need be emphasized because we need their professional acumen and advance knowledge to help reposition our sports sector in no distance time, I am of the believe that Government should identify these individuals and solicit their support by way of engaging them as consultant to our various Sport programmes.

Maybe because I feel I am better than most of their present crop of defenders (Another long giggle).

Some athletes featuring in the Judo event of the ongoing 18th National Sports Festival (NSF) in Lagos on Friday urged corporate organisations to partner with the federation, to popularise the sport.

The judokas made this plea in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos. The athletes believed that such a move would help the sport to grow appreciably in the areas of championships and the harnessing of budding grassroots talents.

Tunde William. a male judoka who won a gold medal in the 66kg category, said that organising championships on a regular basis would help players identify their areas of strength and weakness and how to keep improving themselves.

“Judo is a sport that needs regular championships through which judokas could express themselves and be able to assess their performance. One needs a lot of championships because without competitions, we become restless and lose shape. With more competitions, we can be able to assess ourselves,” he said.

William also expressed joy for clinching the gold medal in the 66kg category, saying that he had prepared hard for the festival.

Catherine John, a female Judoka from Nasarawa State, who won the bronze medal in the 48kg category, said that the Judo Federation should be proactive, in order to be able to attract sponsors. “The sport should be made attractive to potential sponsors because the lack of competitions is affecting us,” she said.

John, however, noted that as a female, the sport had improved her skill, saying that she can defend herself; all she needed to do was to get close to her opponent. “Judo is also good for females because I can proudly say that I can defend myself,” she said.

Haruna Abdul, a male Judoka from Kano State, who came third in the +100kg category, said more competitions should be organised to further develop players and coaches.

“I am appealing to corporate bodies to come to the aid of Judo because we need more competitions to help make us stronger and better,” he said.