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Birmingham
City manager, Alex McLeish, is desperate to have Obafemi Martins in his
starting line-up for this weekend’s game against West Ham United.

McLeish brought
Martins back to the English Premier League on loan from Russia’s Rubin
Kazan ahead of Monday’s transfer deadline but the striker was unable to
feature in Wednesday’s 2-2 draw against Manchester City as he was stuck
in Lagos. The former Newcastle United and Inter Milan striker was
reportedly waiting for officials of the British High Commission in the
former Nigerian capital city to process his visa to the United Kingdom,
and as a result missed the game at Saint Andrew’s. But the Birmingham
boss is now hoping that everything will be sorted before the Blues
travel to Upton Park to face West Ham in a relegation battle on Sunday.
And, he admitted, in a report on the Birmingham Mail, that Martins
would be in the squad even if he arrived in England as late as Saturday
night.

Wanted badly

“We want him back
as soon as possible,” he said. “Our hands are tied by the red tape.
People in Nigeria hopefully will push the wee man through. He’s a
popular guy and I’m told the embassy would be responsive to allowing
Oba to get back in this country as soon as possible.”

West Ham, after
what appeared to be an eternity, climbed off the foot of the Premier
League table when they defeated Blackpool 3-1 with two of the goals
coming from Martins’ Nigerian team-mate, Obinna Nsofor. So a win for
the Hammers this weekend will see them leapfrog Birmingham on the table.

But the Blues would be confident at Upton Park as not only did they
stun the Hammers in the Carling Cup semi final, but the display against
Manchester City on Wednesday was uplifting. “It would have been galling
to have lost that one after the magnificent second-half performance,”
said McLeish. “But, City were dangerous, they will score goals, they
have got the quality there. By and large we matched them. We were
sloppy in the first-half but I can’t fault the players for the
fantastic effort they gave – and there was a lot of quality from us as
well, we played some good football. City move it well, they have great
footballers in Silva, Tevez, Dzeko will bring a lot to them when he
gets top fit, no doubt about it. So we knew we were playing against top
quality players. But we gave it a right go ourselves – and we’ve got
to. We’re at home at St Andrew’s, we have the crowd behind us, the
power of the troops last week against West Ham in the Carling Cup
semi-final was immense and, again, it unnerves the opposition. In the
second-half we were more in their faces, we were excellent.”

This
year’s edition of the Rivers State Governor’s Cup promises to be no
different from the others in its determination to showcase local
talents. The Obio-Akpor team, with three talented players – Kenneth
Ekwe, Osi Miniru and Owen Okene – has dominated the tournament and
recently bashed Bonny Kingdom lads 7-2. Not only are the trio
tournament leaders, they also dominated the score sheet, amassing a
total of 18 goals in three matches. The tournament is sponsored by
Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Mr Ekwe has helped his team
to remain on top by scoring eight goals. Both Miniru and Okene are
among the leading scorers with four goals each.

Others who
registered their names on the scorer’s sheet include Uche Agoko of
Okrika with four goals, Kachi John of Akuku-Toru and Johnson Asaro of
Eleme scored three and two goals respectively.

It is interesting
to note that some of the best legs of 2009 Governor’s Cup are now key
players at the top of the Nigeria Premier League clubs. They include
the duo of Thompson Stowe and Fortune Omoniwari who play for Sharks of
Port-Harcourt; Ijima Wikina and Innocent Matthew who play for Dolphin
FC; and Solomon Job who plies his trade with Gateway FC of Abeokuta.

In matches decided
on Tuesday, Okrika lived up to their pre-tournament billing by
defeating the lads from Gokana 2-0 while Etche won 3-0 against Onelga
to keep their hope of progressing to the next stage although they will
have to wait until next Tuesday when the preliminary matches will be
concluded.

After
two weeks of excitement, action resumes at the maiden Governor
Babatunde Fashola Football Cup this weekend at Ibeshe, Ikorodu, Lagos.

The 16-team
football carnival was sponsored by former Lagos State commissioner for
agriculture and co-operatives, Kaoli Olusanya in honour of the state
governor. In the games, Isale Ebute would trade tackles with Ilemere on
Saturday February 5 at Kene Balogun School Playground; and Guide Close
will take on Owode Rabaka at the Liberty ground Oke Ota Ibeshe, Ikorodu.

The tournament’s
sponsor, Mr Olusanaya praised Mr Fashola for changing the face of
sports in the state, adding that the tourney was a small way of
boosting youth football in his community.

“You never can
really tell the number of football stars that would be discovered at a
tourney like this and go on to represent our country in the future,” he
said. He said he was happy with the work of the state governor and
decided to honour him with the tourney.

As the quarter
final games beckons, the sponsor enjoined all players and fans to
maintain the high standard of discipline exhibited so far towards
making the tournament hitch free.

Apart from a giant trophy, lots of other prizes are at stake for teams that excel and the finals comes up in March 20, 2011.

Manchester
City manager Roberto Mancini has said his players need to be at their
sharpest when they host West Bromwich Albion tomorrow. After a shock
2-2 draw against Birmingham on Wednesday, City are nine behind their
neighbours and league leaders, Manchester United who have a game in
hand.

A day earlier, West
Brom had also played out a 2-2 draw against Wigan; a game coach Roberto
Di Matteo believes his side should have won. The Baggies sit
uncomfortably in 16th place, two points above the relegation places,
but will be boosted by the fact that striker, Osaze Odemwingie has
rediscovered his scoring touch. And if West Brom are to avoid the drop,
they will need goals from the Nigerian.

The former
Locomotiv Moscow player already has nine goals in his first ever
Premiership season and is excited about the trip to the City Of
Manchester Stadium. But first he has to get over a minor ankle
complaint.

“The goals give me
quite a bit of pride. That is what I am here for. They bought me to go
up front and get the goals. They are assisting me all the time. On
Tuesday I had an assist from Jerome and I just had to touch it in,”
Odemwingie said on his club website.

Odemwingie, who
arrived West Brom this season, has scored the same number as Fernando
Torres, Chelsea’s new £50 million buy and he is feeling good about his
performances. “At the moment some of the top strikers in the Premier
League have about eight or nine goals, the same as me. It gives me a
lot of confidence that I have the same number of goals as the top
strikers of good teams in England.”

Despite his
excitement, Odemwingie knows it won’t be an easy game. “It is always
interesting to play against a big team. I know it is a big stadium. “I
haven’t played there so I am hoping there will be no difficulties with
my ankle that prevent me. They are a big club.”

Mancini out for victory

Obviously disappointed with his team’s performance mid-week, Mancini is rallying his team for victory against West Brom.

“I don’t like it.
It is better that we wake up. Probably we don’t work well in training
and we sleep in the game and it is better we wake up quickly,” Mancini
said after the game. “We played well for the first 50 minutes and then
we forgot to play. I should change something. We must think about
improving – we should try to play football again, because in the last
few weeks we’ve forgotten this.

“We didn’t play
well. Sometimes it’s impossible, in January and February the team are
tired, but a team like us should be able to defend strongly and win
1-0.”

City beat West Brom
2-0 in their first meeting in November at the Hawthorns — with goals
from Mario Balotelli, who was subsequently sent off for violent conduct.

Though he wants all three points at stake, Odemwingie is willing to settle for a draw.

“It will be nice to
play against them and we’ll remember the last game against them that we
lost here, hoping now at least we can get a point from them.”

His team mates will
be hoping he rises up to the ‘occasion’ as he did in matches against
Arsenal and Manchester United this season.

“I enjoy big
occasions and big games – and this one fits into that bracket. It is
easy to prepare for a big game because the pressure is there. You have
to really prepare for it and go all out – it is a good pressure.”

The pressure will
be more pressure on title-chasing City, who will be hoping to stem a
bad run that has seen them fail to win their last three matches.

Other games

Manchester United travel to the Moulineaux hoping to maintain the
momentum and protect their unbeaten run, while Arsenal will be
concentrating on gaining revenge for the 1-0 loss suffered to Newcastle
earlier in the season.

Super Eagles defender, Olubayo Adefemi has declared support for Nigeria’s team to this year’s Homeless World Cup.

The ninth edition
of the tournament, which has been held annually since 2003, comes up in
Paris, France from August 21-28, 2011, and the Skoda Xanthi of Greece
right back has joined the likes of Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, Cote
d’Ivoire and Chelsea striker Didier Drogba and 1998 World Cup winners,
Lillian Thuram and Emmanuel Petit in supporting the Homeless World Cup
movement.

Adefemi, who
previously accepted to work for Search and Groom youth for development
centre – the official selectors of Nigeria’s national street football
team – as an ambassador, made this disclosure in an e-mail to Yomi
Kuku, the Search and Groom’s Executive Director.

In his statement,
Adefemi said he believes that with his penchant for youth and community
development, his support will help in fund-raising activities to
support the Nigerian team ahead of the World Cup where they will
compete against 47 other nations for the top prize.

They include host
nation France, defending champions Brazil, two-time winners Italy,
Ghana and South Africa with matches coming up at the Champs-de-Mars, in
the shadow of the Eiffel tower in Paris.

Gratitude

Adefemi expressed
his gratitude for being considered to be a part of this attempt to use
football in addressing social issues in Nigeria and promised to be
personally involved before, during and after the Paris 2011 Homeless
World Cup.

“I was involved in
charity work while playing in Israel for Hapoel Tel-Aviv. This is
another call to service,” Adefemi said. “I look forward to the ground
breaking achievements your organization and I will experience.”

Adefemi also
congratulated the Nigerian team and players to previous editions of the
Homeless World Cup for putting up good performances on and off the
pitch.

Adefemi’s schedule
as an ambassador of Search and Groom includes participating in
community projects, as well as child and gender related programmes to
be implemented in Nigeria. He will also pay a minimum of two visits
annually to project sites.

Nigeria will be
making a fourth appearance at the Homeless World Cup with the team’s
best performance coming at the 2009 tournament in Milan, Italy where
the team eventually finished fourth after losing to Brazil in the
third-place match.

In addition to the fourth-place finish, the team also got the UEFA Fair play award to cap a remarkable outing in Italy.

The Homeless World Cup promotes social integration through football
and creates fresh, inventive solutions to end homelessness and poverty
worldwide.

Plans are underway by Sahara Golf Tour, a golf tour operator, to organise three major professional golf tournaments this year.

Oye Onwuka, the
Executive Chairman of the company, said yesterday in Lagos, that his
organisation is set to midwife, “the great marriage of Golf and
Business”. “The game of golf in Nigeria has been played over the years
at the amateur level and to a reasonable extent, professionally,” he
said. “That Nigeria is not on the golf map today is clearly fallout of
years of lack of leadership, strategic direction and serious financial
support from corporate sponsors, unlike as is the case in the western
world. Professional golf tournaments in Nigeria has before now, been
positioned more as a recreational sport with the unattractive prize
money involved in this part of the world. It is so unattractive that
famous international golfers and even large corporate and multinational
organisations find it unworthy to participate at a serious level in
professional golf events in the country.”

Mega bucks

To remedy the
situation, Onwuka says Sahara Golf Tour, in conjunction with The
Sunshine Tour of South Africa, the Professional Golfers Association of
South Africa, and the Professional Golfers Association of Nigeria, will
organise the Independence Cup, the Royal Cup Classic and the Breast
Cancer Awareness Pro-Am tournaments. He said the Independence Cup,
which will be held in October this year to commemorate Nigeria’s
freedom from colonial rule in 1960, will not only be the first to tee
off but will also have the biggest prize money. Participants in this
category will battle for the $1million purse, which he said is likely
to attract top golfers from outside Nigeria.

He said the Royal
Cup Classic and the Breast Cancer Awareness Pro-Am tournaments would
have purses of $500,000 and $250,000 respectively. “We are in this for
the long haul, which will see us including golf development as part of
our programmes,” he said. “Our partners from South Africa, along with
corporate Nigeria, will form a formidable team that will see Nigeria
producing young golfers who will earn a living playing the game of
golf.”

Also speaking at the event, Dennis Bruyns, the Chief Executive
Officer of CEO of Professional Golfers Association of South Africa,
said his organisation is partnering with Sahara Golf tour because it
feels that Nigeria has a lot of potential in the game. “If the game is
properly organised, Nigeria will become a top golfing nation in the
world,” he said.

The
Super Eagles dropped eight places in the latest FIFA ranking released
yesterday. The Eagles, who were ranked 32nd last month, now occupy the
40th position.

At this time last
year, the Eagles were ranked 15th in the world, but a poor outing at
the World Cup followed with other dismal performances has seen the team
lose ground. The fall is also due to Nigeria’s inability to play
quality friendly matches when it is not engaged international
competitions. The Super Eagles are usually idle at periods when other
national teams are busy playing friendly matches.

Despite the dip in fortune, the team is still ranked 4th in Africa, behind Egypt, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana.

Missing out

According to FIFA,
one of the yard sticks adopted in ranking teams is the outcome of games
from friendly matches at periods when international competitions are
not on the football calendar.

Only recently, a
proposed friendly match with Guatemala billed for February 9 in the
United States of America was put on hold as organisers failed to seal
an agreement with their opponent. The football federation has however
announced that the Eagles will take on fellow West Africans Sierra
Leone on the same date in Lagos.

African Ranking

While the Super
Eagles will be ruing their fall, current African champions, Egypt were
the worst hit in the February ranking. They fell from their previous
enviable 10th position to the 33rd spot in the world. The Pharaohs
consequently lost out on the continent’s top spot; a position they had
consistently held for the past twelve months.

According to FIFA,
Egypt’s slump, which puts the North African country in 3rd place on the
African ranking, was due to the significant devaluation of the points
won a year ago at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations in Angola.

The Black Stars of
Ghana are now the highest ranked African team; they occupy the 15th
spot in the world, followed by Côte d’Ivoire who are eleven places
behind in the 26th spot on the world ranking.

Asian on the rise

There were no
changes at the summit of the global ladder with the top nine teams
maintaining their positions, but Japan (17th, up 12 places), who became
Asian champions for a fourth time in Doha, have re-entered the top 20
after being absent for almost five years.

The Samurai Blue
are now the highest-ranked Asian team as well as being the third team –
after hosts Brazil and world champions Spain – to qualify for the FIFA
Confederations Cup in 2013.

The just concluded AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011 had a significant impact on the latest edition of the ranking.

Qatar 2011 finalists Australia (21st, up 5 places), as well as
semi-finalists Korea Republic (32nd, up 7 spots) and this month’s
highest climbers Uzbekistan (77th, up 31 places), rose in the ranking.
Other Asian teams on the rise include Iran (44th, up 21 places), Jordan
(84th, up 23 places), Iraq (88th, up 10 places) and Qatar (90th, up 15
places).

Super
Eagles coach, Samson Siasia says that in order for him to succeed in
the task of transforming the senior national team into one of the most
formidable squads in the world, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF)
needs to organise friendly matches on a regular basis.

Siasia spoke yesterday in Lagos during the TomTom Roundtable with Sports Editors organised by Cadbury Nigeria.

Siasia’s call came
on the heels of the cancellation of an international friendly match
scheduled with the national team of Guatemala and the choice of Sierra
Leone as its replacement.

“We need to play a
lot of friendly matches. That is one was we can assess the progress of
the team. I would like for us to avail ourselves of the opportunity
presented by the FIFA free days to engage teams,” Siasia said.

Siasia, who
expressed regret that the proposed match with Guatemala had been called
off, said it was encouraging to know that a replacement has been lined
up. He debunked claims that he had objected to moves by the football
federation to get Benin Republic as replacement before a deal was
finally struck with Sierra Leone:

“I did not reject
any team. That report is untrue. It is the responsibility of the
football federation to ensure that the team is kept busy through the
organisation of friendly matches. I do not dictate to the NFF what to
do,” Siasia said.

Mountain climbing

On his assignment
as coach of the Eagles, Siasia says it is akin to climbing a mountain,
noting that there is a long way to go to getting the Super Eagles
Flying again.

“It is not an easy task but it is doable. It requires hard work and commitment on the part of all,” Siasia said.

One of the ways
Siasia believes this can be done is by having the right calibre of
players. He said no player who is not enjoying regular playing time
with his club, will be extended an invitation let alone play for the
team.

“There will be no
shortcuts to the Eagles. It is either a player is in form or he is not.
There’ll be no room for unfit players in the squad,” the Super Eagles
coach said.

He warned that
though he is determined to make a success of his present assignment by
ensuring that only the best players are assembled for the national
team, he will not beg any player, no matter how good he is, to play for
Nigeria.

“If a player feels he doesn’t want to play for his country, there is
nothing anyone can do about it. We have good players spread around the
world, we will turn to those that are interested,” he said.

Former
Olympic swimming champion Ian Thorpe ended months of rampant
speculation and announced his return to the pool Wednesday, with an eye
on making the Australian team to swim at next year’s London Olympics.

The 28-year-old,
nicknamed “Thorpedo,” quit competitive swimming in 2006 after a
glittering career in which he captured nine Olympic medals, five gold,
three silver and a bronze, at Sydney in 2000 and Athens in 2004 and 11
world championship titles.

“It hasn’t been
something I’ve taken lightly, I made the decision last September,”
Thorpe told a televised news conference in Sydney.

“I went to see the
swimming venue for the London Olympics and it’s an extraordinary venue
and I could taste it, which is something I haven’t felt for a very,
very long time.

“I didn’t get back
into the pool to get fit, I got back into it for (no) other reason to
get back into the stage where I could compete at an elite level.”

Thorpe registered
for the drug-testing regime Wednesday. He must be registered in the
program for nine months before he can compete.

Thorpe, whose
speciality during the height of his career were the 200 and 400 metres
freestyle, said he would target the relays and the 100 and 200
freestyle when he returned to competition.

“It was on my bucket list to swim at another Olympics before I was 30,” Thorpe added.

“I’ve never not
liked swimming. I like the laps, I like the training and the hard work
and in the time out of the pool I have been able to get on with a
normal life, but this is something that has just been nagging at the
back of my mind.

“I have set myself in preparing for London and it may continue after that.

“The thing that is driving me, is being able to perform again.”