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Tiger Woods will
discover just how far his game has slipped when he joins Lee Westwood
and Martin Kaymer in a mouth-watering matching of golf’s top-ranked
three players in the Dubai Desert Classic starting Thursday.

Woods was overtaken
by Briton Westwood at the end of last year and then the mercurial
26-year-old German Kaymer, the U.S. PGA champion, in January at the
summit of golf’s world rankings.

The American’s
swing as well as his private life fell apart last year following
allegations of multiple infidelities which cost him his marriage and a
chunk of the 2010 season.

Dubai marks Woods’
second tournament of the year and his suspect technique will be right
back under the microscope after he finished 44th last week in the
Farmers Insurance Open after closing rounds of 74 and 75.

Westwood, for one,
cannot wait for the chance to go head to head against a man who had
dominated the sport virtually unchallenged since the late 1990s until
his fall from grace last year, picking up 14 Majors along the way.

Woods has won the Desert Classic twice, in 2006 and 2008.

It is the first time in 17 years that the world’s top three ranked golfers have competed in a regular European Tour tournament.

‘Fantastic draw’

“It’s a fantastic
draw for the tournament and for the people watching,” Westwood told
reporters Tuesday as he looked forward to Thursday’s midday three-ball.

“That’s what people
like to see. Certainly at other events where you draw the three main
champions together in the PGA Championship, that’s always exciting.”
Mohamed Juma Buamain, vice-chairman and CEO of Golf in Dubai, said
ticket sales were up 30 percent compared to last year when Woods
elected not to compete in Dubai following the turmoil that overtook his
private life.

Westwood
leapfrogged past the 35-year-old American to World No. 1 last October
and it is the first occasion that he has since played in the same event
as Kaymer and Woods, let alone the same three-ball.

“Having a player
like Tiger who has dominated the World rankings over the last 15 years
and also the No 1 and No 2, and playing in the same three-ball is great
for the European Tour,” said Westwood.

The Briton himself is not exactly in the best of fettle having
missed his first halfway cut in over a year last week in the Qatar
Masters.

Progress
has been made in Nigerian Rugby circles as rival parties have agreed to
hold talks and find lasting solutions to the leadership crisis that
rocked the sport in the last two years.

As part of the reconciliation process, all interested parties met last week at the Nigeria Olympic Council board room in Lagos.

At the meeting, it
was agreed that fresh elections will be held to give the Nigerian Rugby
Football Federation a more democratic look. The federation is presently
being administered by Racing RFC who won the concession bid in 2009.
But Friends of Rugby a rival group were opposed to the decision to give
Racing RFC the concession, resulting in a battle for control of the
game in the country. A consequence of the crisis was that the country
had been banned from competitions sanctioned by International Rugby
Board (IRB).

In a bid to conform
to the dictates of the International Rugby Board, it was agreed that
all factions would share the different positions amongst themselves to
form a new board. The present Rugby federation board, Racing RFC, will
retain the positions of president and second vice president while the
first vice president will come from the Stakeholders Forum, a rival
faction comprising Friends Of Rugby and other aggrieved groups.

Other positions are
to be contested for by other factions and they include: the zonal
representatives from the six geo-political zones. Also, there is a 20
percent mandatory slot for women representation on the board and the
position of the International Rugby Board representative.

A welcome development

Reacting to the new
development, Tunde Akerele, Chairman of the Rugby Stakeholders Forum
expressed delight at the turn of events. “I want to thank the mediators
for taking the pains to help resolve the crisis, and bring lasting
peace to this young and fledging game in the country.

“I am appealing to
all parties to help the process mature by respecting each other’s
opinion and the positions we have all agreed to.” Akerele also called
on all Rugby Stakeholders to embrace peace and move the game forward.

Ntiense Williams,
spokesperson for Friends of Rugby thanked God for the recent
development, adding that he is looking forward to genuine development
of the game in the country. “This, we hope, will lead to the unbanning
of the Rugby Federation by the IRB,” he concluded.

The list of eligible candidates will be forwarded to the Nigeria
Olympic Committee Secretary General who will produce a comprehensive
list of the unified board which will be forwarded to all parties,
including the International Rugby Board.

Protests in the
Arab world have toppled a President and forced one to back-track, and
declare that he will step down later in the year.

The opium of
successful protests has spread into other countries to give modern-day
credence to the adage about the “voice of the people” being the voice
of reason. Ironically, obedience to the people’s voice started in
Nigeria sometime last year.

No! We didn’t have
any protests on the streets and of course no President was toppled but
the people spoke, a major government in Nigeria listened and acted to
appoint Samson Siasia as Head Coach of the national team, the Super
Eagles.

He has the onerous
task of reviving the team and Nigerians’ expectations to at least
returning us to the top echelon of football in Africa; no mean task
considering the depths to which we have fallen recently. The good thing
is that Siasia’s track record speaks volumes. In addition to a
successful career as a player, he has led Nigeria’s U-20 team to a
continental title and Junior World Cup final plus taking the U-23 team
to an Olympic final, where they lost narrowly to a Lionel
Messi-inspired Argentina. It only made good sense to appoint him to
nurture and mould the talents he has ‘discovered’ into the Eagles
future and hope for silverware we have not won at senior level for
almost two decades. That means he must know what to do.

Getting it right

Siasia has since
clearly demonstrated that he knows the way forward for Nigerian
football by setting up SIA-ONE Soccer Academy. In a nutshell, the
conveyor belt of Nigerian talent must be discovered, given the proper
foundation and properly nurture them to be the future Eagles.

Therefore, it was a
historical moment for COD United to host Coach Siasia over the weekend
of January 30 and welcome him to launch one of contributions to Youth
Development. COD United is a football club that was created from City
of David, a parish of Redeemed Christian Church of God in keeping with
the tradition of English Premiership clubs like Liverpool, Aston Villa,
Bolton, Manchester City, Aston Villa, Bolton Wanderers, Birmingham
City, Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur who all started from the church.

COD United is
currently a National Amateur Division 1 club, and started from Division
3 in 2007. The club strives to maintain its core elements of
discipline, integrity, excellence and team-work in all ramifications.
The club has been involved in community development since inception
through its players and recently contributed football kits and balls to
Baptist Boys High School, Victoria Island, in addition to redeveloping
the school’s pitch.

A partnership that works

COD United has now
entered into a partnership with the Eagles coach and SIA-ONE Academy to
launch a new initiative in the Oniru Community Cup; a 5-aside
competition for the youth living and playing football in the community
in Victoria Island.

The inaugural
competition will be held by the end of the first quarter and will be an
annual event. The trophy for the competition was unveiled by the Eagles
coach, representatives of the Oniru family and COD United to the
delight of around 200 excited youngsters from the community. The coach
also signed numerous autographs and posed for pictures with fans after
addressing the City of David congregation who prayed for him as he
starts on his journey as national team coach.

COD United and
Siasia also intend to partner on youth development through mutual
technical support on some outlined terms such as scouting and
recommendation of talent as well as nurturing grounds. In truth, these
kinds of partnerships should be replicated all over the nation as an
ad-hoc arrangement that could work efficiently to fill the gap created
by the absence of a structured and organised scouting system so that
talents are not wasted.

After all is said and done, it is time for us all to join hands
together in support of the “people’s coach” who humbly admits that it
was the people’s desires that got him the job in the first place
starting from the friendly against Sierra-Leone in Lagos and all
through his tenure.

Athletes
in Lagos State have shifted their focus from the often postponed
National Sports Festival, to the upcoming National All Comers
Tournament billed to kick-off next week.

The National Sports
Festival had been scheduled to take place in Port Harcourt at the end
of February, but it has been postponed till June. The decision to hold
the festival in June marks the third time it will be postponed, forcing
athletes to turn their attention to other competitions.

Yesterday, many
athletes were at the National Stadium, Lagos, preparing vigorously for
the first leg of the All Comers Tournament coming up on Friday,
February 18 at the Liberty Stadium in Ibadan.

With the National
Festival out of the way for now the All Comers tourney is generating
all the buzz, particularly as it is the maiden athletics meet of the
year.

Folake Atoyebi, a 100m and 200m sprinter, is looking forward to her first time of competing at the two-day event.

“I am very excited to be competing in this tournament,” the 20-year-old said.

“You know it is a national competition and I want to be able to do my best so that all efforts would not be in vain.”

Another athlete,
Femi Akinwale, is also getting himself into proper shape for the trip
to Ibadan. “You know this is the first competition to be held this year
and I believe that a person who wants to end well must be able to begin
well,” Akinwale said before commenting on the state of sport
facilities.

“There are no
proper facilities to make our preparation easier and that is killing
the interest of people in the sport,” he added.

“I would like to
enjoin the relevant authorities to do something to improve the paucity
of facilities because when you have the correct tools for your work,
you will be able to prepare and function effectively.”

Kola Adebayo, an
athletics coach, however, explained that despite all odds, work has to
just continue. “Though we are not satisfied with the way things are, we
are however happy that we have the opportunity to at least train some
athletes for something,” he said, before giving kudos to the Athletic
Federation of Nigeria, for the Meet initiative.

“They have given us a programme of events for the year and as far as
people are ready to compete, we will also be ready to prepare them for
the competitions that have been slated,” Adebayo concluded.

Samson
Siasia began his reign with the Super Eagles on a victorious note with
a narrow 2-1 win over the Leone Stars of Sierra Leone on Tuesday night.

Taye Taiwo put the
Super Eagles ahead in the 15th minute from the penalty spot while
Ekigho Ehiosun, making his debut for the Super Eagles, made it 2-0 for
Nigeria just before stoppage time in the first half. But substitute
Mohamed Kabia pulled one back for the visitors in the 89th minute.

Michael Odibe and
Emmanuel Emenike made their debut for the Super Eagles. And only three
players — Joseph Yobo, Taye Taiwo and Osaze Odemwingie — who played for
the Eagles at the 2010 World Cup were in the starting line-up.

The build up

While some fans
started arriving the Teslim Balogun stadium, the venue for the game,
from mid-day, others spent the earlier part of the day rushing to
shopping malls to purchase tickets before the 3pm deadline for sales —
tickets were not available at the Teslim Balogun Stadium. By 5pm, the
stadium was already half-filled and there was a standing ovation for
former Super Eagles captain Austin Okocha, when he came into the arena.

Frantic start

The match had
started on a frantic note with Ahmed Musa on the receiving end of a
rough tackle by Leone Stars’ skipper Sherif Suma.

And it was a battle
that would replay itself over and over again all through the game as
Musa continually made the evening a torrid one for the Sierra Leonean
left back; Suma eventually got a yellow card towards the end of the
first half.

Before then, in the
6th minute of play, a short corner kick from the Holland-based Musa
fell in the path of an onrushing Taiwo and almost resulted in the
opening goal but Leone Stars goalkeeper John Tyre managed to parry the
Nigerian left back’s long range shot out for a corner kick.

Three minutes
later, it was the turn of Emmanuel Emenike to put the Super Eagles in
front, but the Turkey-based striker, one of three players making their
debut in the starting line-up, failed to latch onto Peter Utaka’s low
cross with Tyre at his mercy.

In the 11th minute, Tyre was once again called to duty, this time punching to safety Osaze Odemwingie’s curling free kick.

Controversy

A controversial
moment followed shortly after as Utaka was put through on goal by Joel
Obi only to be hacked down in the area with the referee Crespin
Acuidissou from Benin waving for play to continue.

A minute later
though, Utaka was not to be denied as the referee was spot-on in
awarding a penalty kick after the OB Odense of Denmark forward was
tripped in the area by David Simbo.

From the resultant
penalty kick, Tyre was left rooted to the spot by Taiwo’s well-taken
shot as the Eagles put their beaks in front much to the delight of the
Lagos crowd.

And it ought to
have been 2-0 for the Eagles four minutes later but Emenike failed in
his bid to locate an unmarked Musa in the Leone Stars area.

The Sierra Leoneans
then attempted to restore parity through Mohamed Bangura, who was doing
his best to keep the central defensive pair of Joseph Yobo and Michael
Odibe busy, but their inability to dominate the Nigerian midfield
marshalled by Inter Milan’s Obi proved their greatest undoing.

Obi, with his deft
touches on the ball along with his tailor-made passes and on-field
intelligence, was only making his debut for the Eagles but he,
alongside the rampaging Musa, made life difficult for the visitors.

More disappointment
was to follow for Emenike as he was forced to make way for Ehiosun of
Warri Wolves following a rash challenge by Suma in the 40th minute and
five minutes later his replacement was on hand to flick past Tyre
following a low cross by Obi after yet another short corner kick from
Musa.

Both Obi and Musa
continued to produce the best moves by the Nigerian side and when
Siasia opted to replace the Inter Milan youngster in the 64th minute
with Heartland’s Julius Ubido, the fans gave him a much deserved
standing ovation.

It soon became obvious how pivotal Obi was to the Nigerian game as the midfield fell asleep.

Odemwingie thought
he had extended Nigeria’s lead in the 20 minutes from the end, but it
was wrongly ruled out for offside by the referee’s assistant. The Leone
Stars continued to press forward in numbers and were soon rewarded with
a goal when Kabia shot past Dele Aiyenugba in the Nigerian goal for
what only turned out to be a consolatory goal for the visitors.

After the Leone
Stars’ scored their consolation goal, Nigerian fans booed every move by
the Super Eagles, who were playing in Lagos for the firs time in almost
a decade.

Post match comments

Leone Stars coach, Christian Cole however felt his team deserved something much better than the 2-1 loss.

“FIFA is about fair
play but there was no fair play today,” Cole lamented. “The Eagles were
given undue advantage by the referee which will not help Siasia and his
team.”

Siasia on his part did not complain about the officiating.

“They did well
overall. The bottom line is winning and we won. I never expected an
easy game and the Sierra Leoneans did give a good account of themselves.

“We will look at where we made mistakes and do the necessary changes.

He added: “I’m not bothered about the hostile crowd but the pitch.
Most of the players are not used to the artificial turf so I have to
talk to them if they can cope or else we move back to Abuja.”

Nigeria
striker Obafemi Martins has returned to the United Kingdom after
securing a visa and now looks set to make his debut for Birmingham City.

The Nigerian
international joined Birmingham on loan from Russian Premier League
giants Rubin Kazan on January 31 – the last day of the English Premier
League’s winter transfer window – but visa problems prevented him from
making his debut for the Blues in last weekend’s win at West Ham.

Martins was in
Nigeria on the day Birmingham secured the 1-0 win over the Hammers in
his bid to secure a visa back to the UK from the British High
Commission.

He has now returned
to England and is expected to make his debut for the Blues when they
take on Stoke City this weekend at Saint Andrew’s.

A statement on the club’s website says Martins, 26, has received clearance to play against Stoke City on Saturday.

Fans’ favourite

Birmingham City
manager Alex McLeish feels fans of the Blues will quickly warm to the
new signing who has also played for the likes of Italy’s Inter Milan
and Germany’s Wolfsburg, not forgetting English side Newcastle United
where the Nigerian scored 28 goals in 88 Premier League appearances
between 2006 and 2009.

“He’s an explosive type of player and is similar to Christian Benitez but with more experience,” said McLeish.

“He has great pace,
is two-footed, very good in the air and I’m sure he’s a signing that
will excite the fans.” McLeish also admitted that he expects Martins to
hit the ground running and add extra to a side that has scored just 24
league goals, the worst in the Premier League with midfielder Craig
Gardner leading the club’s charts with seven.

“We’re looking for Oba to come in and make an impact right away,” added McLeish.

Roads to Teslim
Balogun Stadium, Lagos were closed at 2 pm for Wednesday’s
international friendly match between Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

Tade Azeez, the
Vice-Chairman, Lagos State Football Association, said the measure was
to ease control traffic in the area and enhance security.

People going to
Masha area of Surulere and the adjourning streets had to use other
routes, while only those going to the National Stadium, Lagos, were
allowed into the vicinity.

Mr Azeez said that
2,000 police officers had been deployed for security. “As hosts, we
want to put in place security measures like what obtained here during
the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2009,” he said.

Officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps and the Lagos State
Traffic Management Authority were also on ground for traffic control.
“All the tickets for the match have been sold though we are careful not
to give out all the seats for security reasons,” he said.