The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Green

  • Alleged Anti board Activities: NFF ban Green, Yusuf Ahmed

    Alleged Anti board Activities: NFF ban Green, Yusuf Ahmed

    • Yaya Kwande to be investigated

    The NFF executive committee have suspended two of their members, Chris Green and Yusuf Ahmed, while another exco, Sulaiman Yahaya-Kwande is to be probed.

    These decisions were taken after an executive committee meeting in Abuja yesterday.

    Yusuf Ahmed was suspended for a year for “glaring anti-board activities, including facilitating and participating in an unauthorised gathering in Abuja, as well as a case of forgery to unilaterally alter the decision of the Executive Committee on tenure of management staff”.

    Green was handed a six-month suspension also for anti-board activities and giving media interviews that tended to put the NFF and Nigeria football in bad light.

    Their bans are to be ratified by the general assembly.

    The case against Yahaya-Kwande is to be further investigated.

    Only recently, the executive committee also purportedly impeached president Aminu Maigari.

  • Draw to determine Eagles ‘pre-World Cup foes’

    Draw to determine Eagles ‘pre-World Cup foes’

    Nigeria World Cup foes will determine the countries the Eagles will play against in build-up matches for Brazil 2014, officials said.

    The Nigeria Football Federation technical committee chairman, Chris Green stated:”We are not in a hurry to announce friendly opponents for Eagles.

    “I will be in Brazil this week for the World Cup draw and one of my primary duties would be to finalise on possible friendly matches with countries that have the same football culture with our group opponents after the draw.”

    He added: “You would agree with me that it would not be wise to schedule friendlies that would be of no consequence to preparing the Eagles for the World Cup.

    “For instance, if we are paired against South America and Europeans teams it would be out of place to play African sides in friendlies. So, let’s just be patient after the draw on Friday.”

    MTNFootball.com reports that the FIFA friendly window will reopen in March 2014.

     

  • Ethiopia’ll be hard nut to crack for Eagles—Green

    Ethiopia’ll be hard nut to crack for Eagles—Green

    •’Eagles should work hard for ticket’

    Chairman, Technical Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation(NFF), Barrister Christopher Green has warned those who have started celebrating that the Super Eagles have been drawn against a relatively weaker team in the final play-off of the 2014 World Cup to have a rethink because it would be very hard for the Eagles to easily run over Ethiopia at this stage of the qualifier.

    He then gave panacea for Nigeria to conquer the Walyas Antelopes of Ethiopia and book her place in the finals of next year’s World Cup which include hard work, dedication, concentration and full focus on the qualifying matches.

    “First of all I thank Almighty God for what he has done for the Super Eagles so far. I see today’s (Monday) draw (in Cairo, Egypt) that pitched Nigeria against Ethiopia as a fair draw.

    “But I must confess to you that the draw against Ethiopia is a little tricky because at this level and stage of a World Cup qualifiers you can never take any team for granted. It is not easy to get to this stage of the qualifiers and these teams have worked very hard to get to this stage and there is little or no difference between Nigeria and Ethiopia at the stage we are now because all the teams that got to this stage are fully motivated to pick the 2014 World Cup ticket.

    “The last qualifier as we all know is not a one off thing but a two-legged qualifier. Yes I agree with the fact that Ethiopia has never beaten us (Nigeria) in any competitive match till date. Nut we shouldn’t take anything for granted because anything can happen in the game of football.

    “What is important for us is to work very, very hard to get the World Cup ticket. It is also very important for us as (NFF) Technical Committee to formulate a very good policy that can make us work hard and get the desired World Cup ticket”, Green told Nationsport in an exclusive chat yesterday.

     

     

     

     

     

    He also urged the Chief Coach of the team, Stephen Keshi to be fair and firm in his invitation to players and shouldn’t base the invitation of players on mere sentiments and bias.

    “We must invite and use our best legs (best players) without any bias. There should be no gambling and any risk as regards the players to be used for the two-legged encounter.

    “And again, I must state clearly here that we must invite players based on their current form. This means that these players must be very consistent in their club and in their country. And more importantly, the dform of our players between now and the time of the play-off matches. matter most. I also pray that all our best legs shouldn’t have injuries before the play-offs.”

     

     

     

     

  • Keshi on way to becoming a legend —Green

    Keshi on way to becoming a legend —Green

    • Ikpeme hosts team

    Super Eagles Head Coach, Stephen Keshi is on his way to becoming not only Nigeria’s best coach but one of the best that the continent of Africa has ever produced, as long as he keeps his head down.

    These were the words of the Chairman of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Technical Committee, Christopher Green while assessing Keshi’s performance so far with the national team.

    “We have been more than supportive of the coach and he knows it, but mischief makers will always concoct stories for (to cause, ed) fights between both parties.

    “But I will say Keshi is on the right path and if he continues to work with the NFF blueprint, we have a man who can become the best ever in Nigeria and Africa’s history and an NFF board that will be unrivalled in years to come,” Green, a lawyer, said.

    The Eagles were hosted to a sumptous dinner by son of the soil and NFF Technical Director, Dr. Emmanuel Ikpeme, who apologised for the late hosting. He noted that his wife had been out of the country for a long while, but he was delighted that when she returned and he suggested the idea to Mrs Ikpeme, she bought it.

    Training for the team intensifies today ahead of Saturday’s duel against the Flames of Malawi, whose FA Scribe is already in Calabar to assess the security and other concerns of the team ahead of the tie.

     

  • Green confident of Eagles ahead of AFCON

    Green confident of Eagles ahead of AFCON

    BARRISTER Christopher Green, the technical committee chairman of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, has expressed confidence in the 2013 AFCON outing of the Stephen Keshi-led Super Eagles.

    In a chat with NationSporting, Green noted that while it may not be easy, the crop of players under coach Keshi are capable of a good show in South Africa.

    “I want to say that we have a credible team. I can say that for sure. All we need is the ability to harness these players and make them blend.

    “Unfortunately, FIFA has a limited number of slots for friendly games at which time one has to put a team together and such times are not enough to fully build a team. But I must say we have a fairly good team. Good enough to at least make us proud.

    “I have the confidence that we are going to do well. Stephen Keshi is not under any pressure. The pressure that he has is the same that we have. It is the same pressure all Nigerians have because we are all expectant”, Green said.

    “We are trying to evolve a pattern of playing for the Nigerian team. It’s our pet project with the U-17 team. If you look at this team, it’s well thought-out and cut-out. They’ve been together from U-13 and now they are U-17 now. We ensured they passed the MRI scan at once and that is to tell you there is future for Nigerian football”, he explained.

    Green remains confident that the Stephen Keshi-led Eagles would be a team to beat in AFCON 2013 tournament.

    “We are a big nation in terms of football; forget the fact that we did not qualify last time out. We can get bloopers here and there, it happens. But I tell you, we will still remain the team to beat. Everybody during the draw was praying not to get into the same group as the Super Eagles because they know what we bring in terms of our play”.

    Meanwhile, the top Nigeria FA official Green has also said he is disappointed by Osaze Odemwingie’s reaction after he was not called up for the AFCON.

    Osaze was sensationally left out of a 32-man preliminary squad for next month’s Nations Cup and has gone on social media platform Twitter to vent his frustration, insisting he was not dropped for football reasons.

     

  • Eaglets are future of Nigerian football – Green

    Eaglets are future of Nigerian football – Green

    The Chairman, Technical Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation, Mr. Christopher Green, said on Monday that the U-17 National team would be groomed to become future Super Eagles players.

    The Eaglets defeated their Malian counterparts 2-0 in Mali on Sunday to qualify for the African U-17 Championship, scheduled for Morocco next year.

    The team qualified for the tournament on a 4-0 goal aggregate, having earlier defeated the Malians 2-0 in Calabar.

    Green told the News Agency of Nigeria on phone from Port Harcourt that the team’s victory against Mali was commendable and a sign of good things to come.

    According to him, the team played well and showed that they had good future for football in the country.

    He said, “Well. I want to thank God for what He has done for us. This is an experiment that we started long time ago, an experiment that started over eight months ago, where we put these boys together and started nurturing them, and this is the result.

    “Real under 17 players, playing together as a complete unit.

    “I want to say that they played marvellously well and that they have actually shown that they have future for football in this country because the way they played and the way they have gone through this qualification series showed that, by the grace of God, our future for the Super Eagles is very very bright.”

    Green said the Eaglets would go on break and later get back to camp to prepare for the African Youth Championship.

    On the protest against the over aged Malian team, Green said the NFF was keen on the outcome of the decision of the Confederation of African Football.