Nigeria Content Online

Spurs and Inter jostle for top spot

With 12 teams already through to the round of 16, the last four will be decided in matches to be played today and tomorrow.

In group A matches,
Inter Milan and Tottenham Hotspurs are already through to the next
round but the issue of who tops the group is still in contention.
Tottenham lead before tonight’s games on account of a better head to
head record against the defending champions. Spurs lost 3-4 at the San
Siro but bettered the Italians,

3-1 at White Hart Lane.

Spurs’ manager on
this maiden European trip says that his team must retain top spot as
they travel to face tricky opponents, Twente Enschede.

Redknapp said: “We
want to finish top if we can. Inter Milan will go to Germany looking to
win because that top position is important. Otherwise, it’s the likes
of Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich in the next round.”

Dutch champions, FC
Twente on five points will also be assured of a spot in the Europa
League – they are mathematically certain of getting the third spot in a
very difficult group. They have a better head to head record against
Werder Bremen.

Spurs are joint-top
scorers in the competition, and in Gareth Bale, have a player that has
already set the Champions League alight with his three goals at the San
Siro. With Chelsea as their next opponent in the English Premier
League, Spurs will get confidence boost if they successfully retain top
spot today in Holland.

Inter are rocking
and off the back of another woeful performance away to Lazio, where
they lost 1-3, Coach Rafael Benitez will be feeling the heat off the
nostrils of Massimo Moratti.

Inter will gladly
welcome Samuel Eto’o back into the team, the Cameroonian captain is
currently serving a three-match ban, with the Lazio match, one of the
three suspensions.

Rumours are already
rife that former Inter keeper, Walter Zenga, may replace the Spanish
coach with the FIFA Club World Cup the last fleece. But as it was when
he left Liverpool, Benitez will be due €4 million in compensation.

Lyon hope Schalke fail

Group B also has
the top spot in contention. German side, FC Schalke have overcome a
difficult beginning and are now assured of a tie in the round of 16
matches.

Also, serial French champions, Lyon are assured of qualification because of a better record against Benfica.

Lyon will be
confident of beating Hapoel Tel-Aviv in France and will be hoping that
Schalke fall in Portugal as they confront Benfica. If that happens, the
French side will move ahead with 12 points to Schalke’s 10 points.

Vincent Enyeama’s
Hapoel still have a slight chance of getting a Europa League berth –
but they have to beat Lyon, and pray that Schalke do the business
against Benfica in Portugal. If it happens it will be the first ever
away win in the competition for the modest Israeli club side.

Other fixtures

In Group C today’s
match will also determine the group winners. A rested Manchester United
side – their Premiership tie away to Blackpool was cancelled due to a
frozen pitch – will be at Old Trafford to face Valencia.

The Spaniards,
beaten on Saturday by Real Madrid need to out-score the Red Devils, but
that looks daunting as United have not conceded any goals in Europe
this term. Scottish champions, Rangers will finish third no matter the
outcome of their match against Bursaspor but the Turkish debutants;
will be hard pressed to obtain their first points in the competition.

In Group D, with
Barcelona being hailed as the best football side in the world, Russian
side, Rubin Kazan will make the trip to the Camp Nou, knowing that only
a win can help fuel their desire for a round of 16 ticket. Barcelona
are already through as leaders but can now determine, who will come in
second.

FC København could also become the first Danish club to make the
round of 16 with a positive result. København have seven points to
Rubin Kazan’s six and will progress as long as they match any result
that the Russian champions obtain in Spain.

After 80 matches of
the ongoing UEFA Champions League, guests to the Heineken Planet House
are set for the final group matches of the competition which come up
today and on Wednesday.

Tonight, guests of
the house will be able to follow two English Premiership sides
Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspurs as they both chase top spots
in their groups after qualification for the lucrative knockout stage
had been guaranteed from day five.

The countdown to
which teams will make it to the show piece final for the May 28 date at
Wembley Stadium, London has now effectively begun.

Heineken
International began global sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League in
2005/06 season and the competition has commanded immense followership
in Nigeria with several football fans passionately supporting many of
the top European clubs, and sharing in their triumphs and losses.

The awareness of the competition in the country has risen to unassailable heights.

Two years ago, the
Heineken brand brought to millions of Nigerians the UEFA Champions
League trophy. The trophy safely toured various locations over
three-day activation with over 5, 000 fans were on hand at the open day
activation before trophy left to Egypt.

Aside the football matches, guests are expected to be engaged in fun
and exciting activities like table soccer, swimming, Sony Play Station,
chess and golf while all the games are aired on all the screens
available in the HCP.

Have I been making a difference in the Nigerian sport arena?

This is one of the
questions I have been asking myself for the past seven weeks, during
which this column was forced to take a time-off. The period has been
challenging and revealing. I have tried to reconcile my past with my
present, in an attempt to peep into the future; hence, I kept on
wondering if I have made any difference at all in my efforts to
contribute to sports development in Nigeria. Have I been a part of the
solution to Nigerian sports, or have I been part of the problems?

My life in sports

For the purpose of
this topic, I will concentrate on the six decades I have spent in
sports. Any attempt to recall my life in the military, or as a student
union activist, or dramatist/broadcaster, or a newspaper vendor – will,
methinks, make a volume.

I am not too sure,
but there is the likelihood that my father must have played a football
match, the evening preceding the conception that brought me to life.
Maybe that is why my head is big and looks like a size 4 ball. I grew
up living with and loving football. My late dad played football and I
am sure elders who served in the Railways of the 1950s will remember
him. I recall “H.O. Banko” – that was father’s alias, bringing the
Challenge Cup trophy home in 1953 and “Ame-Loko” – Pius Kashimawo
Laloko (my beloved elder brother – first of my late Mother), former
Technical Director of the Nigeria Football Association (N.F.A.) and
current C.E.O. of the Football College, Orile Imo, Abeokuta,
ecstatically running around with the trophy. My dad was captain of the
Northern Railways FC. But the irony is that he would never allow me
play football. “I did not send you to school to play football”, was the
warning that always kept me in check, but of course the rascal in me
did not allow me to understand what the man was saying. It did not make
any sense to me anyway. Haba, how could he be so involved in the
beautiful game, only for him to deprive me of the opportunity to
express myself? So I would go ahead and please myself, only to be dealt
with severely. This was the situation I found myself throughout my
primary and secondary schools years, even though I tried cutting
corners.

Reprieve however
came during my days at the University and the Military. Good old days
especially at the University of Ghana, Legon. Details are kept for the
book to be published soon. That was when I was young.

Now, I am no longer
as young as I used to be. And so I am deep in the process of
reconciling my past with the present. I have come to realise however
that success is a choice I have to make and that it is not likely that
I will have everything I want or need.

A peep into the future

The major challenge
facing me right now is the fact that I have to make decisions about how
I am going to contribute more effectively to football development in
Nigeria, without compromising my position on the need for credibility,
transparency and fair play. What do I do with the football coaching
certificates/licenses and franchise that God has given me the ability
to acquire within the past couple of years? How do we make an idea like
the “Diamond Structure Philosophy” become functional from the local
government council areas, to the federal government level, in Nigeria,
so that sports and education can be effectively married, for the sole
purpose of preparing millions of our young ones in Nigeria for credible
future leadership roles?

How can genuine and
functional synergy be established between the sports and education
ministries all over the Country? How do we get the Parents/Teachers
Association of Nigeria involved in sports, to the extent that very
soon, Nigeria will begin to produce Parents who can also double as
sports coaches?

How do we groom the next generation of referees, administrators,
officials, coaches, sports scientists, agents, managers, writers, et
cetera. Who is to be held responsible for this? Is it the National
Institute for Sports (N.I.S.) or football schools like those run by
Segun Odegbami or Kashimawo Laloko? How do we make some state governors
realise the fact that billions of innocent tax-payers monies are being
wasted on meaningless sports promotions instead of sports development?
Does any women-football loving Nigerian realise that the major reason
our pretty and beloved Super Falcons may very soon become feckless –
simply because of there is no functional women football structure in
Nigeria? Well, that is apart from the criminally inspired issue of age
falsification of our women at the age-grade level. Believe me
sincerely, I have had the opportunity of seriously and soberly thinking
of these issues and several more, within these past seven weeks. Can I
effectively discuss them now? No, we will continue next week, God
willing.

Warri Wolves at the
weekend defeated Lobi Stars 2-1 to stretch its unbeaten start to the
2010/2011 season to five games and shoot to the top of the Nigerian
Premier League table.

The encounter which
took place at the Warri Township Stadium saw the home side, saw
Tochukwu Mbachu shooting them ahead on the stroke of half time only for
Victor Barnabas to cancel out the lead 17 minutes after the restart
from the penalty spot.

Wolves however
sealed their third win of the season courtesy of Efe Yarhere’s 78th
minute winner, putting them in the right frame of mind ahead of this
weekend’s trip to Port Harcourt where they will come up against
erstwhile league leaders Dolphins, who lost 1-0 to Niger Tornadoes in
an ill-tempered game.

Wolves had in the penultimate weekend’s round of matches defeated JUTH 1-0 to end the Jos side’s unbeaten start to the campaign,

Drama in Minna

The league match
which came up at the Bako Kontagora Stadium, Minna, was marred by crowd
trouble. Sections of the home crowd resorted to pelting the match
officials with missiles, one of which hit Dolphins’ goalkeeper Sunday
Rotimi on the head on the 70 minute mark.

Play was halted for
a couple of minutes in order for the former Super Eagles fringe
goalkeeper to receive treatment. Not long after the restart the home
side were awarded a questionable penalty, Tornadoes’ goalkeeper Danlami
Umar stepped up to take the kick. But Rotimi went in the right
direction to keep out Umar’s effort.

With two minutes
left on the clock, a seemingly harmless cross into Dolphins’ penalty
area by Tornadoes’ Chinedu Justice sailed straight into the net with
the referee failing to spot an infringement on Rotimi in the crowded
area.

Dolphins’ manager, Stanley Eguma could not hide his displeasure at the end of the game.

“For me, I will say
we were robbed by the referee who first awarded a penalty against my
team that should not have been a penalty,” said Eguma. “Then he did not
protect my goalkeeper in his area and allowed three players to push him
during that free kick that led to the goal. This is not how football
should be played. It is just sad.”

The loss, Dolphins’
second of the campaign, dropped them to fourth spot on the table,
behind Gombe United and Rangers — both teams won their respective
games; the former a 1-0 win over bottom-of-the-table Ocean Boys, while
the latter recorded an emphatic 5-1 victory over Zamfara United.

Rangers can’t stop scoring

It was the second
game in row at the Nnamdi Azikiwe that Rangers would be scoring five
goals past their opponents after doing likewise in their 5-2 thrashing
of Ocean Boys in Enugu.

The winning margin
might probably had been much more had the trio of Fred Okwara, Uche
Nwofor and Ejike Uzoenyi – who have jointly contributed seven goals to
Rangers’ tally – featured in last weekend’s game.

In their absence, the responsibility of scoring the goals was left to Musa Najire,

Ugonna Uzochukwu, Brendan Ogbu and veteran striker Emeka ‘Ayaya’ Nwanna, who netted a brace.

In Aba, Enyimba
inflicted a second successive away defeat of the season on Shooting
Stars, winning 1-0 courtesy of an 86th minute penalty converted by
goalkeeper Chijioke Ejiogu.

The defeat to the
defending league champions saw Shooting Stars drop to eighth place on
the table just above Crown who defeated Kano Pillars 2-0 courtesy of
two second half goals from Harrison Egbune and Bode Daniel.

In other results, Kwara United defeated Heartland 1-0 in Offa while
Plateau United edged out Bukola Babes by the same score line in Jos to
record their first win of the season. Sharks also defeated Sunshine
Stars 2-1 in Port Harcourt while FA Cup holders Kaduna United and JUTH
ended their encounter 1-1.

The initial list of
23 names has been trimmed and three Barcelona players remain in
contention for the Ballon d’Or. They are Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez
and Anders Iniesta.

The diadem was
formerly given by France Football magazine but has now been merged with
FIFA’s World Player of the Year is voted for by football journalists
and the coaches and captains of all national teams.

Spain won the 2010 World Cup with Iniesta scoring the winning goal in the final over the Netherlands in Johannesburg in July.

Xavi has been described as a metronome in football circles.

Iniesta said on his
facebook page that, “It’s an honour to be one of the three finalists
for the Ballon d’Or, and even more so to be there with Xavi and Leo,”
Iniesta added that: “It’s a marvellous prize for the cantera (Barca’s
football academy at La Mesia).” Argentine maestro, Messi won both
awards in 2009 but failed with Argentina in South Africa.

In the coaches’
category, the three short-listed men for the award are La Furia Roja
coach, Vicente del Bosque; Pep Guardiola of Barcelona; and Real
Madrid’s Jose Mourinho. The three are currently based in Spain.
Mourinho is on the list on account of his conquests with Inter Milan of
Italy in the 2009/10 season.

FIFA’s Secretary
General, Jerome Valcke commented on the Spanish dominance in world
football. “Since 2008, Spanish football is really ahead of the rest.
They are also dominating so much at club level. They are playing so
well in their club. They are crushing world football at the moment.
Barcelona’s match against Madrid last week was a brilliant display of
football.”

Barcelona follow in the step of AC Milan, who had three players
named in the 1988 and 1989 three-man short-list. This year’s winners
will be announced in Zurich on January 10.

FIFA broke English hearts last Thursday when it handed the 2018 World Cup hosting rights to Russia.

The signs that the
England bid had foundered was clear to all discerning followers of
events in London, Zurich and Moscow but the English. Till the very end
they held on to the hope, quite clearly forlorn, that they had it in
the bag.

Their attitude is
the product of the English cast of mind, which believes that the
universe, vast as it is, revolves around London and its environs. It is
like a ninety-year old man who in his prime was the heavyweight boxing
champion of the world believing in his old age that he can take on a
man half his age.

The English forget
that the world of the 21st century is markedly different from the days
of empire, the age of Nelson when it held sway on the minds and affairs
of men. Then, it could go to negotiations or the bargaining table with
swagger and come away successful. Today, the reality is different.
Modern day negotiations are underpinned not by moral purpose but
largely by a bottomless pocket and sheer devilry.

The Russians,
reviled globally today as mafias and deviants understood the score.
They knew the game and were willing to play ball after all, the World
Cup is all about football. While the Russians went into ‘hard’
negotiations with the 24 ‘wise’ men of the exalted FIFA executive
committee, the English resorted to blackmail.

The sting operation
carried out by London’s Sunday Times may have done everyone a world of
good in exposing the corruption and graft that has underpinned FIFA’s
activities in the last decade but from a practical point of view, it
was a strategic blunder.

The English should
ask themselves in terms of returns on investment, whether the heads of
Amos Adamu and Reynard Tenarii presented to them on a platter by the
Times, equates the £15 million they spent on their bid.

In scalping Adamu
and Tenarii, the English thought they were forcing the perceived issue
of corruption among FIFA executive members and thereby knocking the
remaining 22 members into line. They misfired. They forgot the time
honoured rule among cults and fraternities -‘all for one and one for
all.’ In taking on Adamu and Tenarii, they had taken on the entire FIFA
executive committee. They had made them look bad and focused global
attention on them and they were not going to forget that. Last Thursday
was payback time and they did so in spectacular fashion.

An act of hubris

The two votes cast
for England; one of them cast by Geoff Thompson, chairman of England’s
FA underscores the enormity of the angst felt by Sepp Blatter and his
henchmen in the FIFA executive committee.

To hear Andy Anson,
head of England’s bid talk about betrayal surely amuses. Anson, in a
fit of bellyaching after the announcement said he had been assured of
at least six to eight votes.

What naiveté! The
truth is, like the tragic hero in classical Greek tragedy, England fell
to a monumental act of hubris. As if the Times expose was not enough,
the BCC worsened England’s already precarious situation with the
Panorama programme, which was aired on Monday, three days before the
vote. As far as timing goes, it was serious faux pas on the part of the
management of the BBC. If the FIFA officials had intended to overlook
the Adamu/Tenarii embarrassment, the Panorama broadcast proved a strong
disincentive. When you add the fact that FIFA officials love Andrew
Jennings, the producer of the programme, the way cats love mice then
you can understand why England didn’t have a prayer.

For the moment, I
say Goodluck to Russia. Despite giving the world some of the finest
players to have played the game -Lev Yashin, Rinat Dasaev, Igor
Belanov, Oleg Blokhin and Andrei Arshavin – Russia have not hosted the
game. It would be interesting to see what they make of this assignment.

Of course the decision to hand hosting rights to them have not gone
down well with everyone. Doomsday scenarios have already rent the air,
with talk of racism and crime in the society leading discussion board.
Conventional wisdom demands we give the Russians the benefit of doubt.
Remember South Africa and India? Critics said they couldn’t pull off
the hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup and Commonwealth Games
respectively but we know how they went, don’t we?