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Money, Chelsea have
found out in the last two weeks cannot solve all problems. It can be a
defence, but for the last two matches, Chelsea have scored zero goals
with the inclusion of £50m striker, Fernando Torres. One point from six
in the league and Saturday’s FA Cup is a good distraction for the
Blues. But their opponents, Everton have been known to be party
poppers, especially at Stamford Bridge, where they have not lost in the
last four seasons.

In Lois Saha, Coach
David Moyes has a player who thrives against the London side and loves
scoring against them. Saha has scored seven goals against Chelsea in
his last nine outings. His personal duels with John Terry have seen the
Frenchman getting the better of his English counterpart on more than
one occasion. Saturday’s game thus affords both sides the chance to put
behind dire performances in the league and concentrate on going far in
the Cup competitions. For Everton, it is the only route into Europe for
next season; and for Chelsea, defending champions, they need to get
back in form to get back into the top four of the Premier League.

Carlo Ancelotti is
still trying to fashion out a formula that will accommodate both Didier
Drogba in attack for the Blues while not throwing the tactical
discipline out of sync. For the draw against Fulham, Ancelotti dropped
Drogba from the start to allow Torres show his worth but the World Cup
winner looked lost on occasions and the famous first touch was also
missing. Ancelotti had told his squad there would be a lot of rotation
to keep his side fresh. “I don’t know if Didier was happy, but every
player knows every game is important,” he said. “It doesn’t matter. We
wanted to rotate to maintain his condition and to give everyone great
motivation. Maybe in the next game we will use both.”

Despite the glaring
misses, the Italian was of the opinion that Torres improved against
Fulham. “Fernando played well,” Ancelotti said. “He had some
opportunities in the first half and I took him out just to use Didier
fresh and with power. That’s the only reason I changed him. His
performance was better than that against Liverpool.”

A battle that will
be fought on the pitch will be between Seamus Coleman, Everton’s right
winger, who has come in leaps and bounds against Ashley Cole, regarded
by many as the best left-back in the world. They have already met twice
this season with the young Englishman doing quite well. “It’s what you
want as footballer, you want to play against the best players in the
world,” he said. “I’ve played against him a couple of times already
this season, it’s always good to play against him and I go into the
game on Saturday hoping to get the upper hand. He has a lot of
experience, he’s played at the top for a long time, he’s very fit and
he knows the game well, it’s very hard to get the ball past him.”
Chelsea beat Everton 2-1 in the 2009 FA Cup final and will certainly
have the edge considering their lack lustre performance against Bolton
in their last league match.

La Liga – Cutting the lead to two points

Suddenly, Jose
Mourinho is sniffing for the La Liga title after Barcelona were held
1-1 by Sporting Gijon and Real won 1-0 with ten men against Espanyol.
On Saturday, he will pitch his record of not losing a home game in the
league, which has now extended to nine years, against a Levante side
that is in 15th position. Though Emmanuel Adebayor squandered three
chances to make the win at Espanyol more comfortable, he is still
expected to start and lead the attack. 24-goal man, Cristiano Ronaldo,
will also be in the mood to increase his goals haul in the league – in
setting the record for the Rojiblancos for most goals in one season.
“Real Madrid never stop fighting and we never forget the values we are
defending,” sporting director Jorge Valdano said after the heroic 1-0
victory in Barcelona. “We are going to fight to win all of the
competitions – we’re prepared for that because the mood is good.”

Serie A – Breathing down the neck of Milan

The fortunes of
Inter Milan have turned around dramatically just eight weeks after
Rafael Benitez was relieved of his job and the reins handed over to
Leonardo. With just one loss in nine, Inter have re-awakened their
pursuit of another Scudetto; and with the 2-1 away win over Fiorentina
on Wednesday, the Nerazzurri are now five points behind leaders and
neighbours, AC Milan. If they beat Cagliari tomorrow, they will have
cut the gap to two points with AC Milan to play on Sunday. Inter won
the reverse fixture despite racist taunts by Cagliari fans and it was
fitting that Cameroonian Samuel Eto’o scored the only goal on 39
minutes; and to celebrate, the Cameroon captain mocked those who had
abused him by imitating a monkey. You can be sure that there will not
be any monkey business on Saturday.

“I think the
selectors did a good job in arriving at the final list even though you
are always sad that a team mate is dropped but that is the way life
is.” This was how Endurance Ofem, the new national team captain, summed
up the team’s composition of 14 players and two alternates.

Former captain Wale
Adeoye, and Chimezie Onwuzulike, were dropped and replaced with Sean
Philips, and Ramit Gil. Philips, who has also been named as the new
coach of the team said “though I was not part of the selection process,
I am happy about the composition and we will have a chance when the
tournaments begin in April.” The 16 players were chosen by the
Selector’s Board of the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF) after
undergoing two phases which ended in Lagos on February 16, 2011. The
squad will now prepare for the Africa Premier League (APL) T20 Division
2, taking place in South Africa from April 22-28, 2011 and the World
Cricket League (WCL) Division 7 holding in Botswana from May 1-8, 2011.

A new captain and a new name

Another new name
on the list, Femi Oduyebo, has been commended for his hard work and his
improved play. Ofem used Oduyebo’s case as an example for the players
that failed to make the team. “I will tell the players that the
national door is not closed. Femi has worked hard this year and I am
happy that he has been chosen for the national team.” Ofem also added
that he is proud to be handed the responsibility of captaining the
national side. “It is a great honour but I will be happier when we
graduate from the WCL Division 7 to Division 6, I will be prouder
then.” On the inclusion of Philips and Gil in the team, the new captain
said, “For me it is a matter of value – Philips’ inclusion is a 100%
bonus to the national team and Ramit is another option of a spin
bowler. His batting also will not let the team down.

“Right now, I think
the national team is better equipped for the challenges in South Africa
and Botswana as against when we went to Guernsey in 2009.” The team
will resume for a mini closed camp in March and are expected to spend
two weeks in South Africa for their final preparations.

The Nigerian
athletics season began today at the Shagamu Stadium in Ogun State, with
the 1st All Comers event and 10km Road Race.

While most athletes
say they are happy that they can now hit the tracks and fields to
compete after the drought of activities since the finals of the Golden
League Meet in Oghara Delta State, seven months ago, they however
expressed dismay at the “no prize money tag” the federation have
labelled the season’s opener.

Former African High
Jump Champion, Doreen Amata, who is making a return to action after a
look layoff, said she was using the event to get back in shape but
reasoned that the federation should have encouraged the athletes with
some cash incentives. “For most of this athletes, they are just
struggling to make ends meet,” she said. “Some prize money will have
helped their plight.”

In a statement from
the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, athletes and officials from the 36
states and clubs going to the event were advised to be prepared to fund
their stay during the two-day competition starting today at the Shagamu
Stadium. The statement said that the federation had sent a letter out
last week to all the intending states and clubs, informing them that it
was not in a position to cater for athletes and officials at the event.

The statement,
which was signed by Rita Akande, the Assistant Secretary of the
federation, warned the athletes and officials not to expect the
federation to shoulder their burdens. “There is no meal subsidy for any
athlete,” the statement said. “No transport allowance or accommodation.
Also, no one should come to Shagamu hoping to win any prize money. This
is an all comers event.” Akande added that expenses incurred by any
athlete are to be funded by their states or clubs.

Meanwhile, the federation has listed events to compete for at the
two-day track fiesta to include 60m, 150m, 300m, 600m, 1,000m, 5000m,
60m hurdles, 3000m hurdles. Others include High Jump, Pole vault, Long
Jump, Triple Jump, Short Put, Discuss, Hammer, 4x200m, 4x400m,
Decathlon (Heptathlon for women.

Eucharia Uche, the
Head Coach of the Super Falcons, has decided that to open camp next
week for the players who may play in the Women World Cup, Germany 2011,
which begins in June. “A total of 33 players have been invited to camp
which would begin next week in Abuja at a venue yet to be resolved,”
she said. “It is important to start preparing and the earlier our girls
get together, the better it is for our chances at the World Cup.”

Those invited to
camp include the bulk of the players who came back as champions of the
continent from the African Women Championship that was held late last
year and an additional six. “The six new players were picked from the
40 we camped sometime in January for two weeks,” she said. The January
camping was for those who did not have the opportunity to join the
Falcons when they were preparing for the African Women Championship
last year.

This present call
up, which is made up of local and foreign based players, would be
flexible enough for the local players to still feature for their
various clubs. “As far as there are no important matches to be played
internationally, the players would be free to play for their clubs,”
she said. “The club must be able to give us notification in advance and
our camping programme has been devised not to hamper the ladies’
performance at their clubs.”

Strategy for success

Uche said the
priority is to incorporate the other six players, which include Sola
Asifa and Kehinde Idowu with the rest of the squad that went to South
Africa. Therefore, the coach decided that the team will be camped early
so that they better understand each other. “We have a number of
friendly matches lined up for them and we hope we would be able to get
the opportunity to have more international friendly matches like the
one we played with Germany last year,” she said. According to her, one
friendly has been lined up for May 17, with Finland. “I would have
loved it to be at a nearer date but I even appreciate the fact that we
have something like that to look forward to,” she said.

Nigeria has been placed in the same group with Canada, France and
World Champions, Germany, in group A. The event will begin on June 26.
Uche expressed confidence of her team’s chances. The Nigeria Football
Federation has approved the second phase of camping of the team.
Nigeria begins this year’s Women World Cup campaign against France in
Sinsheim, Germany on June 26, 2011.

Nigerian
international striker, Obafemi Martins, on-loan from Russian club,
Rubin Kazan, has now been permanently transferred to English club
Birmingham.

Martins, 26, joined
Birmingham during the January transfer window with an option to make
the move permanent at the end of the season. But it seems that a deal
was agreed quicker than expected and the former Newcastle man will now
stay in England. ‘Obagoal’ as he is famously known had been sold to
Russia for around £15m.

Martins had
revealed earlier in the week that he was forced to leave Newcastle for
Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga because relegated Newcastle told him they
could not afford to continue to pay him. Birmingham had already paid a
fee of £500,000 for Martins’ loan move.

Martins played his
second game for Birmingham on Tuesday against his former side,
Newcastle, which they lost 2-0. But he said before the match that he
was misrepresented by a section of the Newcastle media who wrote that
he had demanded a transfer from the Magpies to Wolfsburg.

The player who celebrates his goals with somersaults said he still has fond recollections of his stay with Newcastle.

“The only bad memory was when we got relegated.

“We (Newcastle
players) kept asking ourselves, ‘Why are we relegated?’ and we don’t
even know ourselves why we were relegated. We don’t know what was wrong
with the team. There was a problem with the chairman (Mike Ashley), who
we didn’t know whether he was going to stay or sell but Alan Shearer
tried to save the team but he didn’t and it was a sad story.

“It was normal when
I left because they couldn’t afford the money. And that’s why they
asked me to go. “It was definitely the lowest point of my career and it
affected me because when I went to Germany my profile was lower and
they knew my team had got relegated.”

Before the
permanent move to Birmingham was revealed on Wednesday, Martins had
openly expressed desire to stay in the English Premiership with
Birmingham. With the deal concluded, he now has his wish and can repay
his boss, Alex McLeish, with the goals that will keep the 17th placed
club in the Premiership.

Martin scored 39 goals in 105 appearances, in three seasons with
Newcastle – which translates to one goal in three matches. When he
files out with the club on February 26 against defending champions,
Chelsea, at Stamford Bridge, ‘Obagoal’ will be expected to score his
first goal for his club to celebrate his move.

The hopes of a
quick resolution to the suit over who gets the right to be title
sponsors of the Nigeria Premier League was once again dashed at a
Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, yesterday, when the presiding
Judge, Binta Nyako, had to adjourn hearing on the matter for the
umpteenth time till Tuesday, February 22.

Justice Nyako took
the decision as the lingering argument on legal representation for the
league body, who are the first defendant in the case, was yet to be
resolved by the parties involved. “I am not happy on issues like this,”
she said. “Right now, the case we have before us is a very sensitive
one which we need to resolve on time. If you two cannot resolve the
issue of who gets to represent the NPL then I think the court will have
to decide for you.”

While Emmanuel Oboh
claimed he was the rightful lawyer representing the body, another
lawyer, I.I Obano, also claimed rightful counsel to the both the NFF
and the NPL. Oboh argued that he has been in charge of cases involving
the NPL for over three years and also has a letter duly signed by the
league board for him to represent them yet again.

The real case

Total Promotions
Limited is in court to challenge the decision of the league body to
cancel the sponsorship rights formerly awarded to it. The company had
represented telecommunication company, MTN, in an initial bid exercise
conducted from December 15 to 16, 2010 in Abuja which it eventually won
with a sponsorship package worth N2.6 billion.

However, a congress of the league body, convened in Abuja on January
26, ruled that the process that led to the emergence of MTN as the
league’s title sponsor was flawed and subsequently ordered for a fresh
bid process. The congress also ruled that the fresh bid process must be
conducted not later than two weeks from the date of its pronouncement.
But the ongoing litigation has stalled the move. The league enters the
16th week this weekend and the mounting debt accrued from prosecuting
the matches might likely grind it to a halt.

AC Milan captain
Gennaro Gattuso has escaped an assault charge for his head butt on
Tottenham Hotspur assistant coach Joe Jordan, UEFA said on Thursday.

A spokesman said
the 33-year-old midfielder had been charged with the lesser offence of
gross unsporting conduct which, according to UEFA’s disciplinary code,
carries a “suspension for one competition match or for a specified
period”.

Gattuso will find out the extent of his punishment on Monday.

The charge of
assault carries a minimum three-match ban and European soccer’s
governing body also has a provision for serious assault which would
carry a minimum five-match suspension.

Gattuso has apologised for what he called “inexcusable” behaviour.

The former Italy
international grabbed Jordan by the throat and pushed him out by the
touchline during the Champions League last-16 first leg at the San Siro
which Tottenham won 1-0 on Tuesday.

Gattuso also head butted the Spurs assistant coach after the final whistle before being pulled away by team mates.

The Milan player has already been banned from the second leg after picking up a yellow card in Tuesday’s match.

Former Scotland
striker Jordan, with his trademark missing teeth during his playing
days, won a reputation as a hard man in spells with Leeds United,
Manchester United and AC Milan.

Gennaro Gattuso could face a sizable ban for his headbutt on Tottenham
Hotspur assistant coach Joe Jordan after UEFA said on Wednesday it was opening
a disciplinary case against the AC Milan captain.

Gattuso grabbed Jordan by the throat and
pushed him on the touchline during the Champions League last 16 first leg game
at the San Siro, which Tottenham won 1-0, and headbutted him after the final
whistle before being pulled away by team mates.

The 33-year-old former Italy midfielder later apologised for what he called
“inexcusable” behaviour while Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp called
the Italian firebrand “crazy”.

“I know I shouldn’t have done it,” Gattuso told reporters.
“For the whole of the second half I was sworn at by Jordan. I just got
crazy, I lost my mind and I take responsibility.”

Gattuso, nicknamed “Rino”, played for Scottish Premier League side
Rangers in the 1997/98 season while Jordan, 59, is a former Scotland striker
with a reputation as a hard man who also played for Leeds United, Manchester United
and Milan.

“He talked Scottish, I talked Scottish, he’s Scottish and I played in
Scotland so that’s it,” Gattuso said.

“I will never tell you what we said to each other but it was my
fault.”

Flare up

“I don’t know why it all got so silly,” said Redknapp.
“Gattuso had a flare up with Joe Jordan. He obviously hadn’t done his
homework. He put his head into Joe’s face as well. It was crazy. He lost his
head during the game.”

Gattuso has already been suspended for the return in London on March 9 after
being booked during Tuesday’s match for a foul on Steven Pienaar after which he
banged his fist on the ground repeatedly in anger knowing he would miss the
second leg.

UEFA said in a statement its Control and
Disciplinary Body would meet on Monday, February 21 to discuss the case
following “incidents” in the game, which flared up on several
occasions.

The European governing body has in the past dealt harshly with players who
have failed to control their temper.

Chelsea striker Didier Drogba was banned for six UEFA matches, two of them
deferred, for his improper behaviour in their Champions League semi-final
against Barcelona in 2009.

The Ivorian Drogba harangued the referee after the final whistle, screaming
insults and then launched a foul-mouthed tirade towards a live television
camera.

REUTERS