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Women
football was introduced in Nigeria in the late 70’s, but it did not
become popular until 1991 when Nigerians began to show interest. The
reason for the change in attitude was the quality of football played by
the Super Falcons, then led by Coach Paul Hamilton, en route the first
edition of the Women’s World Cup in China that year.

The Falcons went on
to feature in all the edition of the World Cup since getting to the
quarter-finals at the 1999 edition in the United States of America. This
is in addition to dominating the women’s game in Africa, winning all
but one edition of the African Women’s Championship held since 1998.

While the Super
Falcons made women football popular in the country, the junior national
teams have helped to keep it popular. Both the Falconets (U-20 team) and
the Flamingoes (U-17 team) have fared well in their latest outings;
reaching the final and the quarter finals in the U-20 and U-17 World
cups respectively.

Great teams

After finishing
second in their group at the 2010 FIFA U-20 World Cup, the Falconets
went on to oust USA in the quarter-final and Korea Republic in the
semi-final, before falling to Germany in the final.

At the U-17 World
Cup, in Trinidad and Tobago, the Flamingoes topped their group, but they
were knocked out of the tournament in the quarter final by Korea
Republic, who recorded a 6-5 victory.

Theses achievements,
coming shortly after the disappointment of the Super Eagles was a
breath of fresh air for Nigerians; with many wondering why the Nigerian
Football Federation (NFF) cannot direct half of what they spend on the
Super Eagles to cater for the ladies.

The Super Falcons
this year were able to reclaim the African title, which they lost to
Equatorial Guinea two years ago. Despite their dominance on the
continent, the Six-time African Champions have failed to go beyond the
quarter-final of the World Cup.

No development

Current coach,
Eucharia Uche, has expressed confidence that 2011 Women World Cup would
be better. Unfortunately, the achievements of the teams have not led to
better care for the women league in the country.

Consequently, women football in Nigeria has continued to thrive only at the national level.

With no sponsors for
a local women league, many argue that regardless of the beautiful
campaign by the national teams in recent times, the game is in dire
straits. This they said is because a women league to provide the
foundation for the national teams is almost nonexistent.

Sera Iloduba, a
player who used to star for Bayelsa Queens, has expressed disappointment
at the way things turned out with the league. She is happy for the
opportunity to play but she is getting discouraged.

“I have been playing
for five years and the only thing that has kept me going is passion I
have for the game,” she said. “My parents are now telling me to quit,
saying with all the hard work what do I get for my effort. Looking at it
from their perspective, it is true especially when I still have to ask
them for money to do things”.

Another player, Ogochukwu Atube, said the neglect by the NFF makes them feel like orphans.

“For the past six
years, we have not had any form of sponsorship and they expect us to
feel like we are part of the federation… If they can look for
sponsorship for the guys, I see no reason why they cannot do the same
for us”.

Though she plays in the league, Atube was not sure when the new season would begin.

“You see? That is
one of the things I am telling you. There is so much uncertainty that
you would get discouraged. I would not blame the club owners if they say
they want to pull out of the NFF”.

Giving women their due

About two weeks ago,
the Nigeria Women Football Clubs Owners Chairmen and Team Managers
accused the Nigerian Football Federation of neglecting the women league.

Joy Etim, Former
Falcons assistant Coach and manager of Puma FC, has warned that for the
gains achieved in women football to be sustained and improved, there is
the need to infuse funds into the grassroots. “Grassroots development is
the bedrock of any sports. If we do not encourage the upcoming
generation, how do we replace the older ones. Most of these girls are
financially constrained. Is it a girl that does not have transport fare
to come to camp, and has to trek that would be able to put up her best?”

For better results
in 2011 and for a sustained development in football, players and coaches
agree that there is the need to infuse much needed funds into the
league.

Atube said: “Maybe
part of the sponsorship fund should be earmarked to develop women
because with the way things are going, the women may never get the
attention they need if the hands of the sponsors are not forced. Absence
of funding is making the league very boring”.

Etim on her part believes that a separate body for the women will benefit the players.

“When there is
unequal representation in the NFF, do you think the women will be able
to have their say? So, I will suggest that women should also have their
own executives.”

Uche on her part reminded the NFF that many of the players who are now in the national teams started out from the local league:

“(The) female football league has not disappointed Nigerians.
Unfortunately, we have not been given our dues by the football
authorities. I am calling on the NFF to ensure that the league has a
viable department in the secretariat. In addition, corporate sponsors
must be wooed by them. Without sponsors, female football will not be
sustained”.

Though
many still believe the country is capable of better performances than
it actually did in 2010, the exploits of female athletes in the country
accounts for most successes recorded in Track and Field within the year.

From the African
Championships held in Nairobi Kenya, to the inaugural Youth Olympics in
Singapore, it was mostly the female athletes who made the headlines. The
men were left to play catch-up, save for a few, who distinguished
themselves.

Just like the preceding year, Nigeria was enmeshed in drug scandals in 2010 with three athletes —

Damola Osayomi,
Samuel Okon and Folashade Abugan — found guilty of doping offences at
the Commonwealth Games. All three are to serve bans for their acts.

Despite the
successes recorded, many argue that the Athletics Federation has not
fared any better as complaints about neglect, unpaid allowances,
inadequate preparations and unprofessionalism still persist.

Queen of the tracks

Against the odds, Blessing Okagbare emerged as arguably the country’s top performer of the year.

Though she missed
the Commonwealth Games in India and the World Championships in Doha —
two places many had expected her to test her true might, the University
of Texas, El Paso student stands tall amongst her peers.

Okagbare won the US
national Indoor titles in the 60 metres, grabbed top honours in the long
jump and broke the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA)
Championships meet record twice this year.

Three months later,
Okagbare, added NCAA crowns during the outdoor season in the 100 metres
and long jump, becoming the first in collegiate history to pull off such
a feat.

She was undefeated
in all sprint and jump finals during the season and drew the curtain on
her collegiate career with four national titles, 11 All-America honours
and 15 Conference USA championships in 2010.

Those remarkable
feats earned Okagbare the 2010 Conference USA Female Athlete of the
Year, while she was also awarded both the USTFCCCA Mountain Region Track
Athlete and Mountain Region Field Athlete of the Year during the indoor
season and the Mountain Region Track Athlete of the Year for the
outdoor season.

“It really means a
lot to me simply for the fact that I am not an American and for them to
award that to me means so much to me,” Okagbare said.

League debut

In July 2010,
Okagbare made her Diamond League debut in Eugene, setting a PB over 100m
(11.03) before heading to Europe where she first improved her 200m PB
to 22.71 seconds in Lignano and then clocked 11.10 seconds in Monaco
four days later), confirming her good shape before heading to Nairobi
for the 17th African Athletics Championships.

After arriving in
Nairobi as the new face of African sprinting, Okagbare did not
disappoint, carting away three gold medals in the 100m, Long Jump and
the 4x100m relay whilst erasing the previous Africa 100m Championship
record of 11.05 seconds in the process. Her 11.03 seconds clocking also
equalled her personal best set earlier in July.

In all, Okagbare and
the other female athletes won seven of the eight gold, three of the
five silver, and three of the five bronze medals Nigeria won at that
championships.

After the African
Championships in Nairobi, Okagbare improved her 100m PB to 11.00
seconds, beating American 2009 World Championships bronze medallist
Carmelita Jeter in the heats. She eventually finished third in the final
in 11.10 seconds, at the Aviva London Grand Prix in Crystal Palace on
August 14th.

So much more

The year definitely
was not all about Okagbare as other athletes like Ajoke Odumosu, gold
medallist in the 400m hurdles event at the Commonwealth Games also gave
the country something to cheer about.

At the inaugural
Youth Olympics in Singapore, it was the duo of Josephine Omaka and
Florence Nwakwe who wrote the country’s name in gold winning the 100m
and 200m events respectively.

Seun Adigun,
Margaret Etim, Bukola Agbokunloko, Damola Osayomi amongst others also
gave the country something to cheer at different times.

While acknowledging
the exploits of the women, Ogho-Oghene Egwero, one of the country’s top
athletes said the male athletes also gave their best but just did not
get it right like the ladies.

“We all tired our
best each time we represent the country but you can only give what you
have. I hope we do much better next year. For me, I have set some
targets for myself which I have already started working on. With the
support of everybody, 2011 will be much better” Egwero said.

For 400m runner, Biola Onakoya who was plagued by injury and neglected by the federation, the coming year will also be good one.

“The season was not
too bad after having an ankle injury and being neglected by everyone
including the federation, thank God for Nigeria Security & Civil
Defence Corps that came to my aid if not I could have left athletics. I
have started training in preparation for the upcoming season and I
believe God will lead me to the promise land. May God help Nigeria
Athletics,” Onakoya said.

Last man standing

It wasn’t all gloom
for the men. London -based jumper, Tosin Oke could best be described as
the revelation of the year after coming from obscurity to win both the
African title and the Commonwealth Games gold in the triple Jump event
where many least expected any medal.

His feat in India
ended a 44-year gold drought at the Commonwealth Games. The 30-year-old
is the first Nigeria’s gold medallist in the event since Samuel Igun won
in 1966.

Looking ahead

In his own
assessment, Obinna Ogba, President of the Athletics Federation of
Nigeria (AFN) rated athletics in 2010 high compared to what obtained in
the last three years.

For the New Year 2011, he stated that the Federation will begin the season with a Junior Programme.

“Next year we are starting the junior programme in February and it is
named after Dr. D.K Olukoya, he is going to be taking over the
sponsorship of the junior programme,” he said. He added that the
federation will also put the necessary machinery in place to prepare
well for both the All African Games and World Championships.

The
Year 2010 was a year of intense activity for Nigerian football. Compared
to the years preceding it, 2010 proved to be the most dramatic and
conflict ridden.

The seeds of
conflicts were sown early. In January at the Africa Cup of Nations in
Angola, the Super Eagles, which in 2009 had kept Nigerians on
tenterhooks during the qualifiers for this year’s World Cup, were
expected to redeem themselves.

The team, which had
in the last three editions before 2008 finished in third place before
its quarter final ouster at the Ghana edition, was expected to win the
tournament a third time in Angola.

That expectation
proved too great as the Eagles exited the tournament in the semi-final
losing to a young Ghanaian side comprising players drawn largely from
its U-20 team, which won the FIFA World Youth Championship in Egypt in
September 2009.

Chain reaction

The Eagles’ failure
to win the Nations Cup set in motion a series of events which were to
reverberate throughout the year. The immediate outcome was the firing of
head coach, Shuaibu Amodu on February 5.

Amodu’s sack did not
come as surprise to many. Even though he had led the Eagles to qualify
for the World Cup and had met the Nations Cup semi-final target set for
him by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), a lot of Nigerians were
not altogether satisfied with the way the Eagles played under him. For
most of them, the players appeared carefree and listless with the
traditional spark and verve associated with the squad gone.

With Amodu out of
the way, it was expected that the football federation would move swiftly
to get a replacement but it frittered away valuable time only
appointing former Sweden national team manager, Lars Lagerback at the
end of that month. The Swede however did not get to try out his players
until May 25 about three weeks to the World Cup when the Eagles faced
Saudi Arabia in an international friendly match.

Lagerback’s late
meeting with his players was to have dire consequences for the squad as
it failed to make it beyond the first round of the World Cup despite
being presented with a last opportunity to do so.

Lulu axed

Nigeria’s poor
showing at the World Cup had consequences. President Goodluck Jonathan
taking cue from angry and disappointed Nigerians order a two-year ban on
Nigeria’s participation in international football competitions. He was
to rescind his decision a few days later after warnings from FIFA and
pressure from Nigerians who felt that the careers of players of other
national football teams affected by the ban would be truncated.

Beleaguered
officials of the NFF eager to stave off further verbal attacks from
Nigerians moved to appease then by impeaching Sani Lulu, President of
the federation and two other officials – Amanze Uchegbulam, 1st Vice
President and Taiwo Ogunjobi, head of technical committee. The officials
were among other things accused of running the federation without
reference to other members of the board. In place of Lulu, Aminu Maigari
mounted the saddle.

Election debacle

Before Lulu fell
from power, he had carefully crafted his strategy to remain in office.
Indeed, it was said that it was his preoccupation with getting
re-elected president of the NFF that blinded him to the necessity of
arranging friendly matches on time for the Eagles to enable Lagerback
get a feel of his players well before the World Cup commenced.

As a way of
retaining power, Lulu had tinkered with the statutes of the federation,
pruning the number of delegates eligible to vote during national
elections from 101 to 44 with 37 of those members being chairmen of the
36 state football associations and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT),
Abuja. In addition to this, Lulu had in 2009 extended the tenure of the
state FA chairmen to November this year meaning that the individuals
whose tenure should have expire around the middle of 2010 would stay on
to vote in the national elections fixed for August this year without
first going to renew their own mandate.

This move was
opposed by those who felt Lulu had designed the process to facilitate
his return to power. His case was not helped by allegations that he
bribed each FA chairmen with N5million and sponsored them to the World
Cup in South Africa.

From Odegbami to Jalla

Segun Odegbami,
former captain of the Green Eagles (now Super Eagles) challenged Lulu,
sending two letters, the first in June and the second in July, to FIFA
describing Lulu’s tinkering with the statues as illegal. Beyond
acknowledgement of his first letter, FIFA practically ignored Odegbami.
But they could not ignore Harrison Jalla.

Jalla, a former
footballer who played for among other clubs, Flash Flamingoes of Benin
City in the 1980s, headed to court to compel the NFF to allow elections
hold first into the state FAs. The court, a high Court sitting in Lagos,
had ordered that the elections originally fixed for August 21, 2010 be
put on hold until issues pertaining to the Jalla suit had been
determined.

The NFF now headed
by Maigari, the Director of Finance during Lulu’s tenure, disobeyed the
order and held the elections on August 26 after Isa Bio, minister of
sports had asked them to give him a few days to brief President Jonathan
on the matter.

The disobedience of
the court order infuriated Justice Okon Abang of the Lagos High Court
who nullified the election stating that Maigari and 28 other individuals
including Musa Ahmadu, current acting secretary general of the NFF who
replaced Nolaji Ojo-Oba, the federation’s secretary general who were in
contempt for holding the elections. Maigari appealed the decision.

The case in court
created problems for Maigari preventing him from acting as NFF boss. It
also held up the commencement of the 2010/2011 season of the Nigeria
Premier League, which could not get under way without some committees in
the NFF being constituted.

Trouble in the NPL

There was also the
matter of leadership tussle within the board of the Nigeria Premier
League, which had not abated since former Enugu Rangers striker,
Davidson Owumi emerged chairman of the body this year.

With former Bayelsa
United chairman Victor Baribote insisting he was the right person to
head the NPL and claiming that the relegation of Bayelsa United, the
sports ministry waded in with Bio summoning premier league club owners
to find a way out. It was agreed at the meeting to overturn the
relegation of the Yenagoa-based club side alongside Wikki tourists,
Gateway FC and Ranchers Bees, which had been approved by the congress of
the NPL during the Super Four tournament in Ijebu-Ode in August.

This decision
coupled with the advice given to Ahmadu by the sports ministry to step
down as acting secretary following his being named as a contemnor by the
Lagos High Court, drew the ire of FIFA, which held that government was
interfering with the running of football in the country.

FIFA bans Nigeria

The world football
body on October 4 slammed a ban on Nigeria “until the court actions have
ceased and the duly elected NFF executive committee is able to work
without any interference.”

Moves were quickly
made to get the ban lifted with Amos Adamu, FIFA’s executive committee
member reaching agreement with Jalla who agreed to withdraw the case in
court in return for all the issues contained in the suit filed by the
association being resolved amicably between all the parties concerned
before the next hearing of the court.

This agreement
prompted FIFA to lift the ban on the understanding that final settlement
should be reached. The case was finally withdrawn on October 25 thus
paving way for Maigari to fully take charge at the NFF.

Cash-for-vote scandal

The lifting of the
ban had come as a relief for Adamu who had come under serious fire for
allegedly instigating FIFA to come down hard on Nigeria. His relief was
to be short-lived as trouble lurked around the corner.

On October 16 news
broke that the former Director General of the National Sports Commission
had been involved in cash for vote scandal.

English newspaper,
Sunday Times of London had broken the story of how Adamu and Reynard
Tenarii, another member of FIFA’s executive committee had asked for
money from their reporters carrying out a sting operation in which they
posed as lobbyists for the American bid to host the 2018 World Cup.
Adamu was alleged to has asked for £500,000 from the reporters to secure
his vote for the Americans who eventually pulled out of the bid. Video
footage was released showing Adamu in negotiation with the reporters.

Adamu said he was
innocent but was eventually suspend from all football activities for
three years by FIFA after the body’s ethics committee headed by Claudio
Sulser, a former Switzerland international concluded investigations into
the matter. He has repeatedly said he will appeal the decision.

The suspended FIFA
executive committee member returned to Nigeria on December 17 from
Europe where he had been holed up since the scandal broke. Last
Wednesday he was arrested by operatives of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC), which interrogated him for asking him among
other things, to explain how the N24 billion budgeted for the 2003 All
Africa Games was spent. He was released the same day but had his travel
passport seized.

Glo, NFF Sponsorship face-off

The crisis-ridden
football landscape also witnessed the face-off between NPL and former
league sponsors over the decision of the league organising body to award
sponsorship rights to rival telecommunications company, MTN.

After two days of
bidding, the NPL bid committee announced MTN represented at the exercise
by Total Promotions Limited as new sponsors of the league after it
presented a bid of N2.6 billion to sponsor the league for a four-year
period. Globacom had protested that decision claiming that it had put in
a superior bid of N3billion naira but on December 22, an adjudication
committee of lawyers set up by the NSC stated that the bid process was
transparent and that the NPL was right to have award the rights to MTN.

Women’s game offers hope

It was not all gloom
for Nigeria football as the women’s game proved to be an oasis in the
desert. As the men both in the administrative offices and the pitch
disappointed, the women chalked up laurels. At the U-20 Women’s World
cup, which took place in Germany between July and August, our Falconets
finished in second place behind hosts, Germany.

A month later in
Trinidad and Tobago Nigeria’s U-17, Nigeria’s U-17 women’s team, the
Flamingoes narrowly lost out in the quarter-final of the U-17 World Cup
to South Korea after leading on three occasions in the encounter.

Nigeria’s senior
women’s team, the Super Falcons were to capped a good outing by our
women by winning the African Women’s Championship, which held in South
Africa in November. It was their sixth title overall.

They were to shine again last week at the Glo Africa footballer of
the Year Awards in Cairo winning the Women’s Team of the Year with
striker Perpetua Nkwocha emerging best female footballer for the fourth
time.

Africa’s 400m record holder and Olympic medallist, Falialt
Ogunkoya, has described the resignation of Ibrahim Bio as Minister of Sports
and Chairman, National Sports Commission (NSC) as a sad development for sports
in the country.

Bio resigned last Wednesday to contest for the governor’s seat
in Kwara State. Ogunkoya then praised the people of Kwara State for being lucky
to have an astute administrator who has all it takes to consolidate on the
gains of the current governor of Kwara, Bukola Saraki.

Speaking on the development of the resignation, Ogunkoya, whose
49.10s returned at the Atlanta 1996 Olympics Games remains the African record
in women’s 400m said, “I don’t know why good people don’t last in sports. If
Bio had been Sports Minister for four years, our sports would have changed for
the better. It is very sad that he is leaving. But his eight months was
eventful. He was able to resolve all the problems he met on the ground. He had
the perfect relationship with the Director General, Patrick Ekeji, and at the
Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games, nobody gave Team Nigeria a chance, but he led
Nigeria to record one our best performances in the Games ever,” said Ogunkoya.

While the quarter-miler believes Bio’s resignation is bad for
sports in Nigeria. “The loss to sports is the gain of Kwara, the state will be
lucky to have Bio has governor. I have not been to the State since KWASPO ‘85
Sports Festival, but I heard the current governor is doing a good job; Bio has
all it takes to consolidate on the gains of Governor Saraki.

“The man is simple, humble, honest and transparent, he is also God fearing.
He is the first Sports Minister in recent times whose tenure was not
characterized by any scandal. I wished he had stayed longer in sports.”

Ukraine brothers
Vladimir and Vitali Klitschko, who hold four out of five world
heavyweight title crowns, promised on Saturday a much-anticipated fight
with WBA champion David Haye would take place next year.

“We promise that a
fight with David will take place in 2011, the brothers told German Bild
newspaper.” He can choose who of the two of us he will fight and will
lose his world title to,” they said.

Vladimir, who holds
the WBO, IBF and IBO belts, pulled out of his bout against Briton Dereck
Chisora on December 11 with a stomach muscle injury. Vitali retained
his WBC world heavyweight title by beating American Shannon Briggs on
points in October.

Haye easily defended his WBA title against fellow Briton Audley Harrison in Manchester, England, on November 13.

He had been due to fight Vladimir, the younger of the brothers, in June last year but withdrew citing an injury.

A Haye-Klitschko
fight will certainly generate major media attention, especially now that
many of the Klitschko world title defences get no or hardly any live
coverage in North America.

It is also the only fight that would give the Klitschkos the title of
undisputed heavyweight champions of the world, given they will not
fight each other.

The Miami Heat gave their fans some Christmas cheer with a dominating 96-80 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers Saturday.

LeBron James
collected 27 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, while Chris Bosh added
24 points and 13 rebounds to ensure it would not be a happy holiday for
the Lakers (21-9), who have now been blown out in two consecutive games.

The Lakers were hammered 98-79 by Milwaukee Tuesday.

“I don’t care if we
lose by 20 or by one — I just don’t like to lose,” Kobe Bryant told
reporters. “I’m just upset with how we’re playing. These games mean more
to our opponents than they do us and we need to correct that.”

Bryant struggled to break down a stifling Miami defense and finished with just 17 points on 6-of-16 shooting.

Miami (23-9) seized
the lead midway through the first quarter and never trailed after that,
holding Los Angeles to 40 percent shooting for the game.

The Christmas Day
meeting between the Lakers and Heat had been much anticipated since
James and Bosh signed with Miami to join fellow All Star Dwyane Wade.

Wade returned from a
sore knee that kept him out of the Heat’s previous game and had 18
points as Miami earned their 14th win in 15 games.

Against the reigning
two-times champions, the Heat raced out to a nine-point lead at
halftime and built a 21-point advantage in the fourth.

“We don’t pay much
attention to the score but we’re happy to win the game,” Bosh said. “We
made it tough on them. A (defensive game) is our type of game.”

Los Angeles slogged
through the opening quarter where they managed just 14 points, Bryant
and Spain’s Pau Gasol combined to shoot 0-for-11 from the field.

The Lakers left the court to a shower of jeers from the home fans. LA
were also beaten on Christmas Day last year by the Cleveland Cavaliers.