The Nation Newspaper

Tag: PLAYERS

  • 2016 CHAN QUALIFICATION: Imenger congratulates players, Salisu

    2016 CHAN QUALIFICATION: Imenger congratulates players, Salisu

    • Craves for more quality players
    • Wishes Oliseh quick recovery

    Lobi Stars Team Manager Banabars Imenger has praised home-based players for qualifying for  the 2016 African Nations Championship (CHAN) in Rwanda.

    The Nigerian side forced Burkina Faso to a 0-0 draw in the second leg of the qualifying tie at the Stade du 4 Août, Ouagadougou on Sunday to book a place in the championship.

    The first leg in Port Harcourt a week ago ended 2-0 in favour of the home-based Eagles.

    Coach Salisu Yusuf led the Eagles to Ouagadougou in the absence of the team’s coach Sunday Oliseh who missed the trip due to illness.

    Imenger in a chat with SportingLife expressed confidence in the ability of the team to win the competition  next year.

    “Congratulations to the players and the coaches for making Nigeria proud. They have scaled the first hurdle and they should go ahead to win the cup,” Imenger told SportingLife.

    Imenger charged the coaches to find time to monitor league matches and discover more talents that can help the team achieve their target.

    “It is a new team and now that they have qualified they should prepare well for the tournament. The competition is in February and they have enough time to work on the area where the team is weak and strong.

    “Salisu Yusuf is a local coach and he knows the players very well. He should look for more players in the league. They should not rely on managers or coaches, match commissioners for the selection of players. The coaches should go to the league matches and watch the players .

    “They should not be sentimental about  the selection of players. When they rely on recommendation of people to pick players it is laziness, they should try and choose the players that will help them achieve their target.”

    The ex-international also prayed for the quick recovery of the team’s head coach Sunday Oliseh.

    “I wish him well. I pray that he will recover very quick and come back to continue his job.”

  • Players’ protest in Government House was orchestrated – Iorfa

    Players’ protest in Government House was orchestrated – Iorfa

    Following the protest of Lobi Stars Football Club players to the Benue State Governor over unpaid salaries and match bonuses amidst poor management, the Vice Chairman of the club has responded saying his enemies want him out because he didn’t support the new government during electioneering.

    Mr Iorfa, who have been at the helm of affairs at the club for over 14 years explained that he couldn’t afford to support the present Governor, Samuel Ortom as that would have amounted to anti-party activities considering that the ruling party then was the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    “Because Suswam is in the PDP, I cannot as chairman of the Club be seen to be indulging in anti party activities given the government in power. Money only comes to us from government because it is a government club. So, when the new government came, people thought that they will take advantage of it. Those who want to blackmail me are just being mischievous but I am too big for that. I don’t have their time. I will always give my best and we’ve been in the FA Cup final four times and preparing for the final against Akwa United.”

    He added that he had run the club credible well and wondered why people were antagonising instead of supporting him.

    “Those who complain that I have led the club for 14 years without a league trophy should ask themselves how many teams in the league have won the league title in Nigeria. Only four have done so namely Kano Pillars, Dolphins, Enyimba and Bayelsa United. I don’t understand why people instead of supporting the team to grow are bent on running me down.

    “The English Premier League that many know about, how many of the teams in the league have won the League trophy. I can beat my chest proudly to say I have led Lobi Stars creditably. We’ve played in the continent, have won the FA Cup, have finished as runners up and have never gone on relegation. Clubs like Shooting Stars, Plateau United to mention a few have suffered that fate but Lobi has been in the league every season.”

  • Siasia angry with players for shunning camp

    Siasia angry with players for shunning camp

    Coach Samson Siasia has expressed disappointment that only 10 of his 30 call-ups have reported to a training camp in Abuja ahead of next month’s Africa U-23 Nations Cup.

    The U-23 championship in Senegal will be the qualifying tournament for next year’s Olympics in Rio.

    “I am not impressed that most of the players I called are yet to report to camp. They have preferred to stay back at their clubs,” lamented Siasia after training camp opened on Monday.

    “We only have 10 players in camp now as most of the other players I called up are staying away with their clubs.”

    AfricanFootball.com further gathered that plans are now underway for more players to be called up to the training camp.

    Nigeria are drawn in Group B at the U-23 Nations Cup along with Egypt, Mali and Algeria.

    The top two teams will advance to the knockout stage of the competition with the best three teams qualifying automatically for Rio 2016.

  • I won’t rely on Foreign based players-Siasia

    I won’t rely on Foreign based players-Siasia

    National U-23 Head Coach Samson Siasia has vowed not to rely on the foreign based players as his team begin preparations for the African qualifiers of the 2016 Olympic games. The qualifiers hold in Senegal.

    Siaone as he is fondly called by his admirers said: “We are going to look at everywhere both home and abroad to get those players that would fit into our plans. Because, the problems with the foreign based players is that if you depend on them, and their clubs fail to release them for the competition, you would become confused. It is better we rely on our home based players who will always be there for us anytime you need them.

    ” Look at what happened to us with the case of Godwin Saviour and Taiwo Awoniyi at the just concluded All African Games, where they pleaded with us to just allow them to go and sign for the clubs and return to join the team. But, the clubs said the competition is not on the FIFA calendar, and that was all. But I still feel that something can be done. Because, we cannot stop them from going to Europe. Many of them are breadwinners in their families, and they also need to develop their games. If you disallow them, they will look at it as if you don’t want their progress. What we can do is to have an agreement with the clubs and the players, that if their services are needed, they should be released. Once, we have that proper agreement, the players would be released,” he said.

    The former Julius Berger of Lagos striker said: “The Olympic qualifier is another ball game all together. We have seen our loop holes in Congo, and are going to correct them before the qulifiers in Senegal and ensure we pick one of the tickets for the Olympic games.”

  • ATCON to NCC: protect smaller players

    ATCON to NCC: protect smaller players

    The Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) has stressed the need for regulatory intervention to safe smaller players in the telecoms space.

    The group warned that if the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) fails to intervene, smaller players in the industry may go into extinction.

    Its President, Lanre Ajayi however said caution must be taken in the course of doing this so that success is not punished.

    He spoke with The Nation against the backdrop of calls for structural readjustment in the telecoms sector owing to the presence of dominant operatorship in the industry.

    He said: “This is an area that

    has to be carefully addressed. This is because you don’t want to punish success; you don’t want to punish someone that has invested. We are encouraging people to come and invest and they have invested and are getting big. You don’t want to start punishing them because they are getting big because in the first place, you pleaded with them to bring their money to come and invest in your environment and they have done that and they are expanding, that should make us happy right. We should not make deliberate efforts to start punishing them. “But on the other hand too, if care is not taken they will grow so big that they would not allow the smaller ones to grow. So there is also a need for a regulatory responsibility in that perspective that would ensure that you do not use your market size as a deterrent for smaller ones.”

    On whether the NCC is doing enough, he said the regulator is doing something, adding that its best may not be good enough though.

    “Well, I will say the NCC is doing something but maybe not enough. Well because I know for a fact that NCC introduced an asynchronous inter-connect billing which made the older company to pay more interconnect rate than the newer company. It’s a deliberate policy to encourage younger business to grow. So that’s a policy in that respect.

    “I will not say the NCC is not doing anything about it; rather, the NCC is actually doing something. And again you will realise that at some point, the NCC regulated about having separate billings for off net and on net. At some point NCC made some regulation in that area; that is also to a sort of move to discourage market dominance and prevent roughshod ride over the smaller players. So with those examples you will agree with me that NCC is doing something but can they do more, maybe yes,” he said.

     

  • Sardauna Babes players defect in Sweden

    Two players of Nigeria Nationwide League club, Sardauna Babes have defected in Sweden after a botched training tour, AfricanFootball.com has specially gathered.

    Sunday Ajala and Kabiru Musa have stayed back in Sweden after the rest of the Sarduana Babes players returned to Nigeria without kicking a ball.

    The Kano club, who are financed by a former Kano State Governor and minister, were due to play a series of matches including one against Kalmar while in Sweden, but the whole arrangement hit the rocks even before a disagreement with the organisers of the tour scuttled it.

    It was understood that at least 12 million Naira was made available for the team’s trip to Sweden, but at the end of the day only seven players flew out to Sweden and returned after a couple of days without two players and without kicking a ball because of a disagreement with the Nigerian organisers of the tour.

  • Oliseh blasts league clubs for not releasing players

    Oliseh blasts league clubs for not releasing players

    Eagles coach Sunday Oliseh has lashed out at Nigeria league clubs for keeping away their players from his training camp in Abuja.

    Oliseh has called up 23 players from the domestic league, but he had only 14 outfield players to train with in his first training session on Tuesday morning.

    “Those who are commenting or laying emphasis on the fact that we rely mainly on foreign players  should start asking questions because we are back home to train and we don’t have people to train,” said Oliseh.

    “Because every club is trying to hold on to them. So, how do we now want them to learn and catch up with the ones that are in front of them?

    “You can see that it affected our training, we have to change our training programme. We had invited 23 and we ended up with 14 field players. So, I will leave you to judge from this.”

    Title-chasing Enyimba have not released the four players called up for this training camp as they beat Kano Pillars yesterday in a crunch league game.

    The players are goalkeeper Femi Thomas, Idris Aloma, Kingsley Sokari and Ezekiel Bassey.

    Oliseh has said he will draft five players from this training camp to join the 18 foreign pros he called up for next month’s AFCON qualifier in Tanzania.

  • Siasia to hunt for players

    Siasia to hunt for players

    The Chief Coach of Dream Team VI, Samson Siasia has promised to boost the team with better players if found to solidify the team ahead of tougher tasks before the team.

    Siasia disclosed this to SportingLife yesterday in Abuja while x-raying the matches played so far by his team to get to the final qualifying tournament for the 2016 Olympics Football Tournament.

    “The team is a work in progress so we can bring in players if they are better than what we have now. We are not doing friendship in this job. We want the best leg to come and play for Nigeria and at the end of the day to graduate to Super Eagles players. It is not a friendship team. If we find better players that are good enough of course we want to include them to make our team a stronger team”, Siasia explained.

    The former Super Eagles’ Chief Coach also vowed to do everything possible to win this year’s All Africa Games despite campaigning in Group B comprising strong African teams like Ghana, Egypt and Ghana. He wants to win it to prepare the team for the 2016 Olympics qualifying tournament tagged Africa U- 23 Championship.

    “It is a challenge and a target for us because why are we going if we don’t want to win it? We want to go there and do our best to make sure we win the Championship. That will help the team and solidify it for the other challenges ahead. We have qualified and we must try and see how we can win it.

    “There won’t be better preparations than that because it would be very tough out there. I think it is a good one for us preparing for the Olympics’ proper qualification. I think it is going to help our team more because if you play more games it would improve the team. The more games you play among yourselves I think that will help the team to become a better team.

  • Eguma unhappy at AWOL players

    Eguma unhappy at AWOL players

    Dolphins head coach, Stanley Eguma has frowned at the decision of Victor Alegbe and Hope Fibresima who have both gone on Absence Without Leave (AWOL) despite collecting part of the salaries released recently by the Rivers State Government.

    Eguma whose wards have not been firing on all cylinders since the beginning of the season are 18th on the log with 13 points from 15 games.

    Speaking with NationSport in a brief chat, Eguma revealed that unavailability of some of his first team players is giving him goose bumps as he has elected to use some players out of their normal positions in a bid to measure up.

    He said the management is planning to report Alegbe and Fibresima to the League Management Company(LMC) and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) about the unwholesome act of the duo who have breached their contract with their truancy.

    Eguma has however charged his players to go all the way for the three points when they host Wikki Tourists in a Glo Premier League Week 16 tie as they could not afford to lose more home points.

    He noted that Tijani Adamu is another major doubt for the weekend league clash with the player still struggling with an ankle injury.

  • All home-based players arrive for Eagles camp

    All home-based players invited for preparations for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier against Le Sao of Chad have arrived at the team’s camp, sl10.ng can confirm.

    Players from Warri Wolves joined the team on Saturday, after they helped their club to a 4-2 win over Abia Warriors in a Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) game on Friday.

    And with the exception of Mfon Udoh, who has been excused due to illness, all other invited players have now reported to the team’s camp.

    Since commencing preparations for the Chad game, the team has only been training once a day, as against the usual morning and evening trainings, and Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi explains why.

    “These players are already very active and busy with their clubs in the league, sometimes they even play twice in a week, so there is no wisdom in overloading them with two training sessions a day,” he said.

    “What we need to do is to tone them up, increase their sharpness and work on team tactics, bonding and understanding. I am very happy with what I have seen of the boys and the quality of the training, and I can say it’s getting higher and better day by day,” he added.