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Heartland
FC goalkeeper, Bassey Akpan is excited that the Appeals Committee of
the Nigeria Football Federation has lifted a one year ban placed on him
by the disciplinary committee.

Akpan was
sanctioned after he shoved the centre referee for what he believed was
a wrong call in a game against Sunshine Stars on January 20.

Despite his joy, the goalkeeper said he learned some hard lessons in the time he spent outside the football arena.

“I have learnt a lot and I have also realised my mistakes,” he said.

“I have no business
with how any referee handles any match; my job is to guide against the
opponent scoring against my team and that is what I will face
squarely.”

A successful appeal

Heartland had appealed the decision to ban Akpan for a year and on Tuesday the Appeals Committee ruled in their favour.

The committee
reduced Akpan’s ban to the time he has already served in addition to
six month suspended ban, which he would have to serve if he is involved
in any disciplinary case within the period.

The committee also ruled that the Nigeria Premier League should promptly refund the N100, 000 fine paid by Akpan.

Ready to return

Already, Akpan is
eager to return to action stating that he is still optimistic of
getting a call to join the Super Eagles team for the must win match
against Ethiopia on March 27.

“I am still hopeful
for a call; I hope the coaches can still give me a look in. I have been
part of the team’s training at different times and I always give my
best when any opportunity is given,” he said.

Only the
Israel-based duo of Vincent Enyeama and Dele Aiyenugba were handed call
ups in the 24-man list released by Super Eagles coach Samson Siasia.

Akpan thanked the football federation and everybody that stood by him while the ban lasted.

“I am very excited and happy right now; I thank God almighty and
everybody for their support in those trying times. It wasn’t easy I
must confess I am happy to be back,” he concluded.

Nigerian
striker Aiyegbeni Yakubu hasn’t scored for Leicester City in almost a
month but his coach at the English Championship side, Sven-Goran
Eriksson believes it won’t be long before the striker rediscovers his
scoring form.

Yakubu, who joined
Leicester in January — on loan until the end of the season from
Premier League side Everton — found the back of the net four times in
his first six games for the Foxes.

But since grabbing
Leicester’s opening goal in the Foxes 2-1 win over Bristol City at the
Walkers Stadium on February 18, the Nigerian international has been
unable to score a goal for the promotion seeking side.

Five games and over
500 minutes of football have since gone by since Yakubu’s 21st minute
strike against Bristol City, and it is enough to make any striker
worried.

Eriksson, a former
coach of the English national team, admits that it was a source of
concern for the highly-rated Yakubu, but is quick to add that he was
satisfied with the Nigerian’s overall contribution to the team.

Confidence

The Swedish-born coach is nevertheless certain that the 28-year-old would very soon rediscover his goal scoring form.

“I guess it is more
a concern for him as a striker, but not just him, any striker,
especially as he has come from the Premier League and dropped down a
division,” said Eriksson, also a former handler of Italian sides Parma
and Lazio.

He added: “His fame
is goal scoring. He had a couple of chances against Norwich (on
Tuesday, March 8) and he will score again soon, no problem.

“We want to play
him in as often as possible because we know if he can control it, and
he is always marked of course, something will come out of his
cleverness.

“He comes out on the half turn and plays people in. He is a clever football player.”

Leicester City,
following five straight victories, have since suffered three losses in
their last five games and have dropped to ninth on the log standings.

But with nine matches to the end of the season, they will need to
rediscover their early season form if they are to secure one of the two
automatic promotion spots beginning with this weekend’s home game
against Portsmouth which incidentally was one of Yakubu’s former sides.

Head
Coach of the national U-23 team, Austin Eguavoen has reviewed his team
list for next weekend’s 2012 Olympic Games qualifying match against
Equatorial Guinea. Eguavoen called up Nosa Igiebor and Odion Jude
Ighalo to replace central defender Alex Nkume and forward Uchebo
Okechukwu.

Just as his team
was preparing to hit Benin City on Thursday morning to continue
preparation for the match at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Eguavoen
said he has come to the conclusion that Ighalo, who captained the
Flying Eagles at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Egypt in 2009 and Igiebor
would better serve his purpose for the first leg encounter.

Striker Ighalo plays for Grenada FC of Spain while Igiebor plays in
Norway. Uchebo Okechukwu and Alex Nkume played for the Flying Eagles at
the African Youth Championship in Rwanda in early 2009.

Nigeria’s
former number one ranked golfer, Oche Odoh, will take to the field
today as this year’s edition of the MTC Namibia Open tees off in the
Namibian capital, Windhoek.

The championship,
which will see participants battling for a share of the 1.2million
South African rand (around 39million naira) prize money will be taking
place on the 6,570-metre par-71 Windhoek Country Club.

The star prize is
however 190,200 rand (around six million naira) and a strong field of
131 golfers, including Oche, will be hoping that they get to become the
winner of the princely amount come the end of the championship on
Sunday.

“I am very
positive. In a while I have not felt like this and I am very
confident,” said Oche who is the only Nigerian taking part in the
championship which is one of the biggest events in the Southern
African-based Sunshine Tour.

Odoh recently took
part in the Harare Open, but despite an impressive display of shots
that saw him progressing from the pre-qualifying rounds and into the
tournament’s main draw, he failed to advance past the second round no
thanks to a heavy downpour.

He is however
hoping to make up for his recent disappointment with a good display at
the Namibia Open, and is encouraged by the victory of his close buddy
Gift Willy in last month’s Gambian Open.

“Gift is my
room-mate in South Africa and it is comforting and encouraging to hear
the news of his win in Banjul,” Odoh said of his compatriot.

“We share the same dream of playing ourselves to the top of the world ranking. It is encouraging.”

The favourites

Odoh is scheduled
to take to the greens later today in the company of South Africa’s
Lourens Kleynhans and Finland’s Onkoshi Eriksson but he, as well as
other competitors at the Open will have to be at their best to get the
better of South Africa’s Branden Grace.

In the absence of
defending champion, Hennie Otto, and with the man who beat him to the
title in the final round of last month’s Telkom PGA Championship,
George Coetzee, in action in the Sicilian Open on the European Tour,
Grace, currently ranked seventh on the Sunshine Tour, is one of the
favourites for the title.

But he won’t have things all his own way as he will challenged by
his cousin Michiel Bothma, a four-time winner on the Sunshine Tour, and
fellow South African Oliver Bekker.

The unfair treatment accorded female footballers in Nigeria came into focus yesterday at a media roundtable in Lagos.

The event, which
took place in Lagos was organised by Search and Groom, a
nongovernmental organisation based in Lagos in conjunction with the
Heinrich Boell Foundation, a German organisation affiliated to the
German Political Party, Alliance 90/Greens.

The roundtable,
with the theme ‘We play for gender equality,’ had representatives of
media organisations coming together to discuss “Gender (in) equality in
Women Football”.

Delivering the
keynote address at the event, Joke Adefulire, Lagos State Commissioner
for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation decried the imbalance between
the men’s and women’s game.

“The men’s league
has been given its autonomy thereby enjoying the full
benefits/complement of sponsorship, marketing and advertising,” she
said.

Dear to the heart

Adefulire, who said the topic, was dear to her heart, added:

“When we describe
the game as beautiful, we see the future as feminine and for those who
know the link between beauty and feminism. If you conclude that
football is a woman you will not be wrong”.

Participants at the
event deplored the huge gap existing between men and women’s football
in the country particularly the lack of organisation in the women’s
league especially the thinking by the marketing department of the
Nigeria Football Federation that the women’s game is not marketable.

The preferential
treatment accorded members of Nigeria’s male national teams
particularly the Super Eagles, also became a topic discussion at the
roundtable with participants unhappy with the fact that while members
of the Super Eagles are amply rewarded for excelling in international
football competitions, members of the Super Falcons, Nigeria’s senior
women’s team are treated shabbily. They held that while the Eagles were
well rewarded for winning the Africa Cup of Nations in 1994, the
Falcons have not been given any special treatment for their numerous
successes on the African continent.

Shady administrators

Another key issue
that came for discussion at the event was lack of transparency
perceived by the participants to be involved in the administration of
football in Nigeria. They held that with world football governing body,
FIFA making annual grants available to the NFF to develop women’s
football, there is no indication of how the funds are administered.

The media itself
was not absolved of blame in the problems facing women’s football with
participants agreeing that it had not done enough to promote it:

“We have not done
enough to push the equality of the women agenda in a game that the
women have brought us joy and celebration in achievement both
individually and as a team,” Adefulire said adding that the situation
can be remedied:

“However the media can do more because the women game deserves it
and has worked hard to earn our respect by these achievements,” she
said.

The
stage is set for the much anticipated wrestling duel between Nigeria’s
Power Uti and Super Festus of the United States of America. The
American arrived Lagos at the weekend for the fight.

The fight, which
comes up in Lagos on Friday, March 18, will see Uti placing his
Continental Wrestling Alliance (CWA) heavyweight title on the line.

And if events that
transpired at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos are
anything to go by, then wrestling fans are in for an unforgettable show
come Friday night.

Uti was part of the
entourage at the airport to welcome, not only the American to Nigeria,
but also Andre Pamphile, the president of the Continental Wrestling
Alliance.

Festus, however,
created a scene at the airport when he charged towards Uti inside the
arrival lounge, grabbing the continental champion by the neck.

Uti somehow got
away from the American and retaliated with some punches before Pamphile
and other onlookers at the airport stepped in to stop both wrestlers
from starting the eagerly anticipated duel at the airport.

“I am not here to joke,” an enraged Festus said. “I am serious with my ambition of taking this belt from Power Uti.

“I will teach him a lesson before his people.”

For his part, Uti, who has held the CWA title for over a decade, and who has never tasted defeat on home soil, remained calm.

“I am ready for this fight and I will give all within me to win,” said the Nigerian.

“This is my country and no one will come here to take this belt from me.”

After
putting up a spectacular show last year, hosting a successful FIFA
World Cup last year, the Confederation of African Football (CAF)
yesterday opted for South Africa as new host for the Africa Youth
Championships.

The tournament,
originally scheduled for March 18 – April 1, in Libya was postponed due
to civil unrest in the country and is now billed to kick off on April
17 – May 2.

“We decided to move
the African Youth Championship to South Africa and it will be played
from April 17 to 2 May,” CAF President Issa Hayatou said in a statement.

New hosts South Africa will thus replace Libya in the eight-team tournament in Group A.

They will face Mali, Egypt and Lesotho who are also in the same group.

The president of
South Africa Football Association, Kirsten Nematandani said his country
is ready to put up another top notch performance both as hosts and
competitors.

South Africa had declared hundreds of millions as profit from hosting the last world cup.

Hoping for better

Meanwhile,
Nigeria’s U-20 team, the Flying Eagles will be hoping to clear the sad
memories brought by the Super Eagles dismal outing last time out in
South Africa.

The Super Eagles
were docked out in the first round of the last World Cup after losing
games to Argentina, Greece and drawing with South Korea. The John
Obuh-led team are in a difficult group, alongside the World and African
Champions, Ghana; perennial rivals, Cameroun and the Gambia.

The team currently camped in Port Harcourt will be gunning for an unprecedented sixth African youth Championship title.

The Flying Eagles
only returned to the country on Monday evening from a four-week
training camp that saw them travelling to such places as Libya, Turkey
and the United Arab Emirates, and playing series of friendly matches
along the way.

The Africa Youth Championship also doubles as the qualifiers for Youth World Cup to be staged in Colombia later this year.

Africa has been given four slots, meaning that only the semi
finalist at this year’s event will get a chance to represent the
continent at the World Championships.

Bayern were favourites to advance to the
Champions League last eight after a superb first half against holders
Inter Milan on Tuesday, following their 1-0 win in Italy in the first
leg.

But defensive weaknesses that
have plagued them all season and a concentration lapse allowed Inter to
come back and win 3-2 with an 88th minute goal to complete Bayern’s
misery after their German Cup exit and their poor Bundesliga title
defence.

“This was a stab in the
heart,” said club CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. “We must now try to rescue
anything we can in the Bundesliga but that will not be easy. Somehow we
have to regroup and get on with it.”

Pressure
is mounting on Bayern, who will host next year’s Champions League final
but face a tough challenge to finish second and qualify for the
tournament automatically or at least finish in the top-three and play a
qualifying round for Europe’s premier competition.

They
are in fourth place, 16 points behind leaders Borussia Dortmund with
eight games left, seven-points behind second-placed Bayern Leverkusen
and two points behind Hanover 96 in third.

“This
was a self-inflicted defeat like so many this season,” said coach Louis
van Gaal, who has already fallen victim of their bad run and will be
leaving at the end of the season, a year early.

“Now we must somehow drag the team out of that dark hole it is in because we still want to qualify for the Champions League.”

With
German media dubbing Van Gaal a lame duck, the 59-year-old Dutchman
knows only too well that this will be a major challenge for his
players, who lack the end-of-season consistency of last year when they
won the domestic double and reached the Champions League final only to
lose to Inter.

“We did this to ourselves and it is not the first time this has happened this season,” a stunned Arjen Robben said.

“We can talk about it and analyse it but we have been doing it all season. We can’t rescue this season anymore.”</

Regular
readers of this column, would have noticed that I have repeatedly
mentioned my utter disgust for sports promotion, instead of grassroots
sports development, especially because of the way and manner in which
such so-called grassroots sports promotions are handled in this
country. I have also always wanted to be different, as revealed very
explicitly in the M.A.D. (making a difference) series, published in
this column, by asking myself periodically, if I have made any
difference at all in my efforts to contribute to grassroots sports
development in Nigeria. I have always asked myself if I have been part
of the solutions to Nigerian sports or part of the problems. This is
because it seemed to me that the more I wrote about problems
confronting sports in this country, the worse the matter became.

It actually got to
a point towards the end of 2010 that I began considering very seriously
if it was necessary for me to continue writing about sports in Nigeria
because I wondered deep within me if the people meant to read and act
on the issues raised by columnists committed to ensuring that Nigeria’s
lost glory in sports is revived – and I make bold to say there are a
few of such in this country – ever get to read our write-ups? Or, are
we considered as jobless busy-bodies, struggling to have some share of
the national cake, in order to make ends meet, or begging to be noticed
and recommended to be listed for the next major international or
national sporting event, so that some of the largesse attached to such
events will trickle down to us?

So I took three
major decisions. I would not quit. I would not concentrate on football
only. I would make very concrete efforts to put some of what I write
into practice. That way, I would be making a difference, especially as
I have been given the mandate and enabling environment to achieve this.
This was what gave birth to the Dove Golden Belt Tournament. It was
conceptualised as one of the events to celebrate the 69th birthday
anniversary celebration of Enoch Adejare Adeboye – an ex-boxer and
General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God.

The entire
programme started on Tuesday February 22, 2011, with a well attended
media briefing, addressed by Johnson Odesola, the Special Assistant to
Adeboye on Administrative and Personnel matters, Wale Oladunjoye,
Senior Special Assistant to the Lagos state Governor, on Grassroots
Sports Development, veteran boxing coach, Joe Mensah and Segun Ajose,
the Commonwealth Light Welterweight boxing champion. While addressing
the Press, Odesola said the tournament was part of the Redeemed
Christian Church of God’s contribution to sports development in Nigeria
via strategies that would leverage the rejuvenation of boxing in line
with the Millennium Development Goals (M.D.G.’s) and the Sports for
Development and Peace programmes of the United Nations General
Assembly. He also stressed that the programme is one of the core
statutory duties of the church, which is to evolve a pyramid that will
create a career line for millions of potential sports persons within
and outside the church. This, he emphasised, is by giving them an
assurance of a positive future through sports and education. The
programme is just one of the contributions of the church to youth
empowerment in this massively blessed country.

As part of the
Redeemed Christian Church of God’s determination to contribute to the
revival and development of Sports in Nigeria, by effectively
contributing to the grooming of the next generation of sports men and
women who will not only excel academically and professionally but who
will also understand and appreciate the fear of God, a life of moral
excellence devoid of recklessness, pride and other numerous social
vices, Odesola also announced the establishment of the Dove Sports
Refinery, which will consist of a football academy, boxing academy and
other related sports academies, at the Redemption Camp along the
Lagos/Ibadan Expressway. Expectedly, the facial and body language of
some of the sports writers spoke volumes, as Odesola rounded up his
speech and fielded questions.

And so, the stage was set for the pre-tournament summit and the
tournament proper, which would not have been successful but for the
contributions of Lagos and Ogun State boxing associations, Segun
Odegbami, Hubert Orji, Olusola Faleti, Wale Edun – who provided the
boxing ring free of charge, the Minister of Sports, Taoheed Adedoja,
who was very ably represented and, of course, the Lord God Almighty.

On
Tuesday practically the entire football community in Nigeria converged
on Portharcourt, Rivers State for the Africa Independent Television
(AIT) Football Awards.

For me it was a momentous occasion made even more remarkable for the professional manner the show was organised.

Not in a long while had I seen in one place football personalities like I witnessed at the awards.

As I scanned some
of the faces at the event – Adokiye Amiesimaka, Jonathan Ogunfere,
Sunny Badru, Mitchell Obi, Isidoreh Oduah, Fabio Olanipekun, Mumini
Alao, Paul Bassey and a host of other ageing and dynamic young and
progressive sports administrators and journalists, I couldn’t help but
wonder how Nigerian football came to this sad pass that it presently is
in.

How can we have
such a wealth of human capital, individuals knowledgeable about the
game and with a burning passion to boot and have Nigerian Nigeria
football prostrate at the valley of mediocrity? How did the charlatans
who presently superintend the game manage to find their way to the
‘Glass House’?

Anyway, this piece
is not about them but about the significance of the AIT Awards and how
it can help in rejuvenating the game despite the shenanigans of its
administrators.

Apart from seeing
the ‘Golden Oldies’ of Nigerian football, the awards also afforded me
the opportunity to interact with the young generation of talent
represented by members of the Super Falcons who turned up for the
event. Clearly, the players were over the moon to be invited to the
event. Looking at them from a distance you could even sense it from
their body language.

The beauty of the
awards for me lies in the fact that a time we are facing what seems
like an interregnum in the administration of football in Nigeria, a
period when the players who are the raison d’être of football
administration are largely ignored by both the football federation and
Nigeria Premier League (NPL), a media organisation is taking the lead
in recognising the toil of footballers whose means of livelihood is
being endangered by a few heartless individuals.

Inspiring our youngsters

While the main
award, the Footballer of the Year Award presented to Vincent Enyeama is
important, the most important award of the night for me was that of the
Young Player of the Year won by Kenneth Kumbur. At a time many Nigerian
youngsters think of heading to Europe as soon as they can learn how to
pass the ball, the award will encourage a lot of them to concentrate on
building football careers here, a development that will help restore
vitality to the Nigerian league.

In the same vein
will the award of Footballer of the Year (National) inspire our premier
league players to excel knowing that the knocks they receive on a
weekly basis would not be in vain.

I congratulate AIT
for the initiative. With continued diligence and hard work, the award
may one day become a reference point beyond our shores. For the Nigeria
Football Federation (NFF), the award should be a wakeup call.
Thankfully, its President, Aminu Maigari, was at the awards and soaked
in every detail. He even made some comments about how the award can
encourage players to excel. It is all very well to mouth platitudes,
the question is, how does Maigari and his colleagues in the board of
the NFF hope to pull the game up from its bootstraps? What magic wand
do they have to re-invent the game in Nigeria after years of maul from
the buccaneers who have administered in the last few years?

I salute AIT for
their effort and hope that they sustain the awards. Clearly, to pull
off an event of that magnitude required great sacrifice and
circumspection on the part of all-from Aisha Falode who worked round
the clock to ensure that there was seamless transition of events the
moment guests started arriving Portharcourt, to Paul Bassey and his
team of selectors for the awards.

One advice I have for them is to consider instituting an award for meritorious service to Nigerian football.

There are a lot of former footballers and administrators alive who
deserve this award for their contributions to the development of the
game. Men like Badru, Ogunfere, John Ojidoh, Mahmoud Kadiri, Linus
Mbah, Christian Chukwu, Segun Odegbami, Emmanuel Okala, to name a few
of them, need to be appreciated for their inputs into the game.