Nigeria Content Online

Kim Clijsters came through a major test of her early season form
to reach the Sydney International final with a 4-6 6-3 7-6 victory over Alisa
Kleybanova on Thursday.

The 27-year-old Belgian is favourite for the Australian Open but
required all of her expertise at winning clutch points in a ding-dong battle
with the big-hitting Russian at a windy Sydney Olympic Park. The U.S. Open
champion clinched her place in the final when Kleybanova went long with a
backhand after a hard-fought two hours and 38 minutes, maintaining her record
of not having lost a semi-final or final since coming out of retirement in
2009.

In Friday’s final, Clijsters will meet China’s Li Na, who
continues to suggest she might match or even better last year’s breakthrough at
Melbourne Park. The 28-year-old, who made it to the semi-finals at the year’s
first grand slam in 2010, came back from a break down in the first set to beat
Serbian teenager Bojana Jovanovski 7-6 6-3. “It wasn’t easy, she’s young but
she’s playing well,” said Li, who was at a loss to explain her great start to
the year. “I just came in, and then finally I was in the final. I was
surprised. I always play well in Australia. I don’t know why.”

Gilles battling back to
form

Former top 10 player, Gilles Simon, continued his battle back
from a serious knee injury to reach the last four in the men’s tournament with
a 6-4 6-3 win over Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov on a windy day at the Sydney
Olympic Park. The French baseline hustler, who was ranked as high as sixth in
the world at the start of 2009 after beating Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and
Novak Djokovic in 2008, said his mobility was improving. “My physical trainer
is 47-years-old, and when we were running he was faster than me,” he said.
“He’s still fit, but still, I was one of the fastest player on the tour. Trust
me, I’m moving far better now than three or four months ago.”

His semi-final opponent Ernest Gulbis was, by contrast, feeling terrible
after his 6-4 6-4 quarter-final victory over another Ukrainian, Sergiy
Stakhovsky. “Bad,” the Latvian said when asked how he felt. “Yesterday’s match
killed me physically. It was really humid and I lost a lot of fluids, so
straight I went to the hotel and I went to sleep. I didn’t feel good. Going to
be okay tomorrow? I just can’t go really long matches. Don’t tell Simon.”
Fourth seeded Frenchman, Richard Gasquet, plays Serbian Viktor Troicki; and
German Florian Mayer takes on Italian Potito Starace in Thursday’s evening
matches to decide the make-up of the other men’s semi.

Coach Samson Siasia has given his Super Eagles wards the weekend
off to play Nigeria Premier League matches for their domestic clubs.

“You should go back to your clubs and help them in the League
matches this weekend; but you must be back here by Monday. Whoever is not here
on Monday should count himself out of the running for a shirt,” said Siasia as
the players had lunch at their Bolton White Apartments camp before dispersing
to different parts of the country. This came after the team had played a 2-2
draw with the national U-20 side, Flying Eagles, in a knock-around at the
artificial turf of the FIFA Technical Centre, Abuja.

On Wednesday evening, Chris Green, the Chairman of the NFF
Technical Committee; Felix Anyansi-Agwu, the Vice Chairman; and acting
Secretary General, Musa Amadu, watched the Eagles in their evening training
session at the Technical Centre. After the session, Green addressed the
players: “You must be ready to listen to the technical crew headed by Coach
Samson Siasia at all times, because if the coach says you are out, you are
out,” he said. “Discipline is important in everything you do, and be assured
that the Nigeria Football Federation will give the team the needed support at
all times.”

A total of 27 players featured in the training, which resumes on
Monday.

Siasia as technical
director

Meanwhile, Green has revealed that Siasia would act as technical
director of the federation pending the appointment of a substantive coach.
“Siasia’s position as the head coach of the Super Eagles qualifies him to act
as the technical director,” he said. “He will do that for now until we appoint
the right candidate for the job.” He said the arrangement has been made
expedient because of the crowded schedule of the NFF this year. Nigeria will be
involved in a number of international football competitions beginning with the
Africa Youth Championship in Libya in March.

If the Flying Eagles do well, they will feature in the FIFA U-20
World Cup coming up later this year. Also Nigeria’s senior women’s national
team, the Super Falcons, would be participating in the FIFA Women’s World Cup
billed for Germany in June. For their part, the Super Eagles would continue the
qualifiers for next year’s African Cup of Nations. The Eagles are currently in
camp preparing for an invitational international football tournament, ‘Obama
Cup’, taking place in the United States next month with Siasia fully in charge
of training sessions. The former Eagle striker has warned players to comport
themselves in a manner befitting of national team players.

Unearthing talent

Green says with someone in the saddle as technical director,
these and the federation’s development programmes would not suffer: “We want to
ensure that the programmes we drew up are systematically implemented in addition
to the various competitions lined up this year. Now is the time to actualise
the promises we made about the development of our football and we must move
beyond lip service to achieve these objectives,” he explained.

Green, who is also Chairman of the Rivers State Football
Association, has attributed his re-election into the board of the NFF to hard
work. He said that he intended to embark on an immense sponsorship campaign to
garner more sponsors for grassroots football in the state.

One of such grassroots development programmes is the forthcoming Governor’s
Cup which is sponsored jointly by the Rivers FA and the Shell Petroleum
Development Company. The tournament begins on 20th January. Green hopes that
such programmes such as this would “unearth more football talent in the
different local government areas of the state.”

No serious Chelsea fan would have believed it if he were told
that at the beginning of 2011, the Blues would be outside the Champions League
placing, especially going by the way the team started the season. In the last
10 weeks, it has gone horribly wrong for Carlo Ancelotti and his men. Chelsea
host Blackburn at Stamford Bridge on Saturday with just one need – get all
three points against Rovers. The fans will not mind the manner the victory is
procured as long as three points are secured. This will help the team leap-frog
Tottenham, which is in fourth place, at least for 24 hours.

Team captain, John Terry, has made another rallying call to the
players after describing their current form as being unacceptable. “Our recent
performances have not been good enough,” he said in the Daily Star. “We’re not
playing at the level we can and we’re slipping further behind the leaders with
every point we drop. That’s unacceptable for a club like this, where we expect
to win every game, and now we have to start to put things right. This squad
should be challenging at the top of the league, winning games and pushing hard
in every competition.” And despite the 7-0 mauling of Ipswich Town in
third-round FA Cup match-up on Sunday, the team will not be lulled into false
state of over-confidence. Ancelotti had said after the match, “I’m not going to
get carried away.

Morale booster

The result was good and we did a lot of things well in this
game. We have to give the same performance next week against Blackburn.” But
one thing the result will have done for the team is boost morale in the team.
Another plus was that young striker, Daniel Sturridge, got a chance to show the
coach that he can score goals and Salomon Kalou might be given a rest to allow
the England U-21 striker to continue his rich vein of scoring form. He scored
five goals in a reserve match against Aston Villa last week. “He played well,
scored, and is a good player and a good striker, very dangerous,” said
Ancelotti. “In the future, he’ll have opportunities. We have a lot of games in
this period coming up. I think he has to fight with the other strikers, but
everyone has to fight. There are a lot of players in competition up front.”

Though Chelsea has not completely given up on defending their
title, Terry said his side must firstly start winning games. “Even if we have
gone off course recently but, before we start thinking about silverware, we
have to concentrate on starting to win games again.” Ancelotti faces the
dilemma of dropping either Didier Drogba or Florent Malouda to accommodate
Sturridge. Drogba and Malouda have been out of sorts over the last eight
matches and Drogba has scored just one goal in eight for the Blues.

Blackburn, under caretaker manager Steve Kean, can themselves
move into the European spots with a win at Stamford Bridge though the team
selection and performance may be hampered by the absence of some key players
due to suspensions and injury. Former England goalkeeper, Paul Robinson, leads
the casualty list, joined by giant midfielder, Steven Nzonzi, centre back, Phil
Jones, who is out for the season, Keith Andrews and Vincent Grella. A piece of
good news is that Jason Roberts has returned from injury and should start in
the absence of Nikola Kalinic, who is suspended.

Basement side seek
Arsenal reprieve

There is no other way that West Ham can go but to seek to beat
Arsenal on Saturday. And with the Gunners’ coach complaining of fatigue in the
0-1 loss to Ipswich Town on Wednesday, there will not be room for excuses as
the Hammers also had to play on Tuesday. Arsene Wenger described his side’s
loss to the championship side as an act naivety. “We were too naive; I said to
them if you can’t win the game at least don’t lose it,” said Wenger on BBC. “I
was very disappointed. We had no spark, no creativity. But I’m confident we
will turn it around at home.” But his attention on Saturday will be turned to
the pursuit of the Premier League crown that has evaded the Gunners for six
years. Wenger also said after the loss at Portman Road on Wednesday that his side
had no excuse for losing and they will have no need for excuses on Saturday
afternoon as they confront Avram Grant at Upton Park.

Saturday could be Grant’s last as manager of the Hammers and that could in
itself lift the home side unless the manager has inadvertently lost the
dressing room. There is already a short-list of candidates ready to replace
him, from former Aston Villa manager, Martin O’Neill to recently sacked
Blackburn coach, Sam Allardyce. Arsenal will have to do that without the
presence of defenders, Thomas Vermaelen and Sebastien Squillaci, who are
sidelined with Achilles tendon and hamstring injuries respectively. Obinna
Nsofor is suspended for the Hammers because of the red card he picked up
against Birmingham in the first leg 2-1 win on Tuesday.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is considering changing
the name of the National Amateur League to one that would reflect its
grassroots nature.

Musa Amadu, the Acting Secretary General of the NFF, said on
Thursday in Abuja that he believed a change of name would help in attracting
more sponsors and glamour to the competition. “The name ‘Amateur League’ makes
it sound as if players there are inexperienced and less relevant,” he said.
“Already, our marketing department is looking into it and we will come up with
something as soon as all approvals are received.”

Noting that the National Amateur League is very important a
segment in Nigerian football because most players in the country would have
played in it at one time or the other, Amadu said: “The League has about 128
clubs in all its three divisions and has more national coverage, thus giving
the sponsors more mileage. From some of the matches I have witnessed in the
league, it has raw talent and you can see the players’ dedication.”

Playing fair

Amadu also promised that the league would become better
organised with the election of a National Amateur League board, stating that
the interest of the League would be protected as it would be given a fair
hearing as a member of the NFF Executive Committee. He urged clubs in the
league to play fair and called on referees to make sure their officiating was
free and fair so that everyone involved would be satisfied. “Clubs should abide
by the rules and regulations guiding the league and ensure that their fans do
not take laws into their hands by encroaching on the pitch or being violent,”
he said.

The acting NFF Secretary General advised club owners on ways of ensuring
prosecution of matches at home: “When matches are being played, you must have
medical personnel on board and on ground in case of any casualty. It is also
necessary that clubs conduct periodic check-up on their players and officials
to make sure they are medically fit,” he said.

Earlystart Weekend Football Academy, a
three-year-old youth and community development initiative of Godwin
Dudu-Orumen has shifted its 2011 season opening date by one week as a
mark of respect for its first Head Coach/Technical Director, Gideon
Njoku, who died on Tuesday, January 11.

Njoku was a member of Nigeria’s
All-African Games 1973 Football event gold medal winning team. He also
was Chief Coach of ACB Football Club Lagos.

In line with the renewed vigour of the Nigeria Cricket
Federation to grow the game in the country, there is need to teach the teachers
who will be sent to the grassroots to help revitalise the game amongst the
younger generation.

As part of this vision, Federal Government College, Warri Old
Students Association Cricket Club came up with a strategised concept to help
elevate the game of cricket in Delta State. This programme involved training
games masters of schools within the state to enable them raise players for the
various national teams in their respective schools.

The club organized a cricket coaching seminar for games masters
in Warri zone. This zone covered the following local government areas; Warri
South, Udu and Uvwie. There were 10 schools represented and they include:
Ovwian Sec. School, Army Day Sec. School, Hussey College, Glory of Christ
Comprehensive School, Otor-Udu Sec. School, Essi College Junior School 1, Essi
College Junior School 3, Federal Government College, Warri, DSC Technical High
School and Urhobo College.

No knowledge of the game

It was not a surprise that over 80% of the various games masters
in attendance had little or no idea of the game. Cricket was therefore
introduced to them at a basic level. They also had the opportunity of seeing
and feeling cricket equipment such as bats, stumps, balls, etc. An interactive
session was then organized with the participants also which included their
input into about what they knew about the game. Participants were then exposed
to video sessions.

They watched the video,
Sports Science on Cricket, which is also the Biomechanics of Cricket, and also
Wings to Fly with Ogbimi Uthe, Ikemefuna Chinedu and Okoro Blessing explaining
as they watched. Participants also made their observations known as they
watched these videos by asking questions which was immediately dealt with by
the instructors. They also had motivational talks delivered by coordinator of
Warri Cricket Club, Nkanteen Usen.

Participants also had practical session on the field. They were
taken through the basics of batting, bowling and fielding in cricket. They were
shown and taught what to pass across to their kids. The participants also had
their first feel of a match situation. This was achieved by dividing them into
two teams. The participants then applied what they had learnt during the
sessions they had gone through. They were also taken to see a cricket pitch and
practice net.

This was to enable them have an idea of what to do if they
intended setting up theirs in their school. The cricket laws was then read and
explained to the participants. Participants were then encouraged to do their
best in raising a team for their school as an inter-secondary schools
competition was in the works to take place in February 2011. They were however
implored to call on any of the instructors if they had challenges as they
gather and coach their students.

The seminar rounded off with the handing over of practice materials to the
participating schools. These included makeshift bats, practice stumps and lawn
tennis balls, in addition to cricket DVDs.