The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Gombe United

  • Gombe Utd fans warned on hooliganism

    Gombe Utd fans warned on hooliganism

    Still basking in the euphoria of back to back  home and away wins, fans of Gombe United have been advised to keep out of trouble in order not to risk banishing the team from home soil as this may not augur well for their battle against relegation.

    They were banished to Bauchi for three matches in the first half of the on-going league season due to fans’ unruly behaviour towards match officials and visiting team.

    A die-hard fan of the club, Alhaji Saleh Sa’adu (Onyebuchi) thought it wise to advise others fans because the club cannot risk banishment from home in this critical and trying time.

    “Akwa United FC was our first home opponent this half of the league and it went well. The next will be Crown FC on Wednesday next week.

    “All we need do is to cheer our boys to victory, not to boo them or cause trouble for them. Being rude to our visitors will only put Gombe Utd under undue pressure,” he emphasised.

    He implored all fans to pray for another away miracle against Heartland today, while trying to persuade Gombe United management to always travel with the team’s Supporters’ Club for morale booster.

    He said a lot of fans are angry over the sacking players like Habu Idris and Bilyaminu Aminu, pleading management to recall and give them the remaining of the season to prove themselves before wielding the axe if they fail to impress.

    Saleh who spoke from fan’s perspective said management needed to be close to the fans and feel their pulse in order to give them some sense of belonging and enhanced relationships.

    He commended Austin Eguavoen’s bright start and expressed optimism in his ability to salvage the club.

     

  • Gombe United release Cooreman

    Gombe United release Cooreman

    • New coach may be announced this week

    The Management of Gombe United has parted company with its Technical Adviser, Maurice Cooreman, SportingLife can reveal.

    A source told SportingLife that a mutual agreement was reached between the two parties after it was obvious that the Belgian tactician could no longer stand in as coach due to his ill health.

    Cooreman’s injury has been a source of concern for the Desert scorpions following his inability to attend training and matches. He is believed to be nursing a back injury.

    SportingLife reports that the former Warri Wolves gaffer planned to return to his postition for the second stanza campaign but the management believes the best thing to do is to allow him to go and have enough time to recuperate.

    Cooreman’s last officail outing for the Desert scorpions was the team’s 3-2 home loss to Kano Pillars at the Pantami Stadium, Gombe.

    “It was a mutual agreement between coach Cooreman and the managment. The decision was due to his ill health. The club need to put everything on ground to better its position on the log. We want to have everything ready both the players and coaching crew. I believe the decision is for the best interest of the coach,” a club’s official told SportingLife.

    Cooreman joined Gombe United two seasons ago from Warri Wolves.

    A source also informed SportingLife that the club may announce a new coach  this week.

  • WE DESERVED VICTORY AGAINST HEARTLAND – COOREMAN

    WE DESERVED VICTORY AGAINST HEARTLAND – COOREMAN

    THE technical adviser of Gombe United, Maurice Cooreman, said his team was the better side in Friday’s Premier league clash against visiting Heartland and therefore deserved the 2-1 victory they secured.

    Gombe United came back from a goal down to win the highly contested encounter to claim their first win of this season.

    The hosts were without their big centre-back, Peter Jang, who suffered a muscle tear last weekend at Lobi Stars.

    Cameroon defender, Saidou Moussa, filled in centre-back in Jang’s absence in his first game in front of the home fans after his debut against Lobi Stars.

    Five-time league champions, Heartland still without their influential captain, Chinedu Efugh since the start of the season soldiered on to a fine start.

    Cooreman expressed delight at guiding his men to their first full points of the season and praised his team for the result.

    “It is a good result for us because the boys did well to come back and win the match. Now we will work to build on this result as we have been playing well in our past games but we’ve not been lucky to win,” Cooreman told supersport.com after the game on Friday.

    The win lifts Gombe United from bottom spot to eighth position while Heartland drop from 14th to 15th position in the NPFL standings.

  • Gombe Utd to pay players soon —Umar

    Gombe Utd to pay players soon —Umar

    THE management of Gombe United will soon boost their players morale before the kick-off of the new season as they plan to pay the backlog of match winning bonuses owed.

    Tanimu Umar disclosed that: “I have got cheery news from the state government as they gave the assurance that funds will soon be made avaliable to the club.

    “So we intend to use part of the funds to pay the match bonues we owe them for last season as a way of boosting them for the new season.

    “The funds, we’re hopeful, will come as soon as the prompt release of it has been granted by the state government. But I feel the bueracracy as regards the release of funds by the State Finance Ministry, might have slowed the process.”

    Speaking as regards their new signings, the Desert Scorpions media manager said: “We had intended making Chigozie Agbim and others known to the public before the begining of the season, but not enough funds had made us to have a rethink.

    “However, after the March 7th kick-off date now looks certain, we should be able to unveil them latest by the end of next week.”

  • Gombe’s Sani leaves Flying Antelopes

    Gombe’s Sani leaves Flying Antelopes

    Gombe United have completed the signing of Sanusi Sani from the Flying Antelopes, otherwise known as Enugu Rangers for the 2013/2014 Globacom Premier League competition.

    Sani had moved in the opposite direction to Rangers at the end of the 2011/12 season, but has rejoined the Savannah Scorpions after a problematic knee injury limited his playing time in the Coal City. He said he had fully recovered from the injury and looked forward to resume scoring in the premier league.

    “I wasn’t lucky with injuries during my time with Rangers and decided to try my luck somewhere else. I had a good time with Gombe United before joining Rangers, so they were the obvious choice for me,” Sani told supersport.com.

    “I know most of the old faces and the coach has also brought in some tested players. I am impressed with the quality of players here. I’m paid to score goals and I hope to be among the top scorers next season. The target of the team is to qualify for Africa, and it is quite achievable.”

    Sani told supersport.com that he had no regrets joining Rangers as he realised his dream of playing in continental competition. He felt they would have gone far in the Confederation Cup had they not been disqualified.

    “One of the reasons I joined Rangers was to play in the Champions League. Unfortunately, we were eliminated before the group stage, but we made it to the Confederation Cup playoffs.

    “We actually eliminated Sfaxien, who went on to win the Cup. It was really painful that we were disqualified. It was a good experience for me. Apart from the injuries, I have no regrets. I have put the injuries behind me, and hope for a fresh start with Gombe United,” he said.

    Sani would be warmly welcomed back to the Pantami Stadium as the fans still have memories of his explosive partnership with Mustapha Babadidi that led to Gombe United having a brief spell at the top of the premier league two seasons ago.

    He finished the campaign with 12 goals and made his international debut for Nigeria.

     

  • Gombe Utd hail Manu, a year after stopping his pay

    Gombe Utd hail Manu, a year after stopping his pay

    Golden Eaglets coach Manu Garba has been congratulated by Gombe United, who ironically stopped his salary last year November.

    A top source informed MTNFootball.com that Gombe United are now all over Manu and wish to share the U17 World Cup glory brought by coach.

    “You cannot believe it that Gombe United now want to part of the glory even after they stopped paying coach Manu’s salary since November, saying he was no longer in their employment,” the source said.

    It should also be noted that the coach was also allegedly short-changed by officials of the Gombe State government when he was awarded a house by his home state after the Eaglets won the 2007 U17 World Cup.

    The then assistant coach was promised a three-bedroom house by the government, but he was eventually given a two-bedroom house.

    “He’s just a good guy who has not allowed the bad system to deter him,” a top official remarked.

  • Gombe sack six players

    Gombe sack six players

    Gombe United have sacked six players as preparations for next season commences.

    Amongst players transfer-listed by the Desert Scorpions are the likes of Oliver Agbo, Idris Isah, Franklin Freeman, Sarki Audu, Samuel Utsaha and Abdullahi Mohammed.

    An official of the club disclosed that the decision to let go of the affected players was made by the team’s Belgian coach Maurice Cooreman.

    Cooreman is said to have submitted a tactical review of the team’s performance in the immediate past 2012/13 season, in which he made a recommendation of players to be retained as well as those who were considered surplus to requirement.

    The Gombe State-owned club finished in a decent seventh place at the end of the Glo Premier League season, with 55 points from 38 games.

     

  • Gombe Utd go on two weeks break

    Gombe Utd go on two weeks break

    Gombe United management has freed its players and coaching crew to embark on a two-week break after ending the 2012/13 season on the 7th spot of the Globacom Premier League log.

    Head media to the Savannah Scorpions, Tanimu Umar disclosed to SportingLife: “After the hetic season that came to a close last week with a victory over Bayelsa United, the management then decided to give the coaching crew and players two weeks to go and rest.

    “The break started Wednesday, so we expect that the players arrive camp before the mid-night of November 6 to begin pre-season camping.

    “However, there will not be any special camping for the team as they will only train in Gombe.”

    Speaking further, Umar said that there were no plans to place any players on the transfer market.

    “I can’t comment on that for now,” he said.

  • MATCH-FIXING: Gombe refute claims

    MATCH-FIXING: Gombe refute claims

    The management of Gombe United have strongly denied the claims that the last game of the season which pitched the Scorpions against Bayelsa United was fixed.

    The team issued a press statement on Wednesday, some parts of which reads:

    “The attention of the Management Board of Gombe United Football Club has been drawn to the persistent allegation of a foul play in the last league game of the season against Bayelsa United, even after the game has been won and the maximum points secured.

    “The Management Board will reiterate, for the umpteenth time, that there never was exchange of incentives between any club and any of us as regards allowing Bayelsa United win the game, and with it the league at the expense of other contenders.

    “The bizarre claim of match-fixing which has continued to this day was laughable, to say the least.

    “There were wide spate of claims, even when we are playing against Kano Pillars, that the match has been ‘sold’. Those claimants were put to shame when Gombe United arguably played the best match of this season’s NPFL to beat Pillars.

    “Those incredible claims metamorphosed on to the match against Bayelsa United, which we also won and put the claimants to yet further shame.

    “Even when the goal against Bayelsa was scored, there were all manners of droll claims with some incredibly claiming the goal was scored by mistake and that the goal scorer was, instead of celebrating the goal, crying.”

    The statement further reads:

    “For the avoidance of doubt, we would like to challenge the conspiracists and false alarmists to bring any form of evidence to back up these claims.

    “We are confident and rest assured that our house is clean and we cannot succumb to blackmail.”

    The statement was signed by Tanimu Umar, the AGM Publicity and Image Making for Gombe United.

  • Bosso rips referees

    Bosso rips referees

    Bayelsa United coach, Ladan Bosso has said his side ably deserved to win the title of the just-concluded Glo Premier League season.

    The Yenagoa-based side missed the title by whiskers no thanks to the 0-1 loss to Gombe United in the last day tie at the Pantami Stadium as they eventually finished third on 61 points, two points behind champions, Kano Pillars.

    Bosso said the match officials made it practically impossible for his side to grab the three points against Gombe United that would have helped his wards to win the league crown.

    “We deserved the trophy but for the referee’s biased officiating which saw our two clean goals and penalty denied in the game against Gombe United. If we had got at least 40/60 officiating we would have beaten Gombe United hands down and gone ahead to win the league title.

    “The referee killed our dream for the title and the fact that people have called for an outright ban of the referee strengthens our stand that we were robbed in the game. Kano Pillars are a good side but it appeared the title had been decided prior to the last games as we were assigned match officials from Kaduna and Kano states. Such appointments create room for strong suspicion and rubbish the image of the league,” said the former Wikki Tourists coach to supersport.com.

    Bosso said his side had accepted the challenge to offer Nigerians credible representation at the continent.

    “The target of every coach is to win the league or pick a continental ticket, we’re happy with the CAF Confederation Cup ticket. Bayelsa United have been on the continent previously but for any demotion or promotion there is a challenge attached to it, the Confederation Cup ticket is a challenge entrusted to our hands and we won’t disappoint Nigerians.

    “I’m working on contacts to get players to strengthen the side ahead of next season’s campaign both for the domestic league and continental assignment,” said the former Kano Pillars coach.