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The
5th CBN Junior Tennis Championship will serve off on Monday, May 2, at
the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club. And a press conference was held yesterday
to herald the championship and also an exhibition match the U-12 and
U-10 national champions. The watch word of the championship is ‘The
future is now’.

As a testament to
that future, Michael Oshewa, the national U-12 champion took on Terry
Das, the U-10 champion, in a match that stretched to over 30 minutes,
with Oshewa finally prevailing 9-6 in the one-set exhibition.

Speaking
afterwards, Faruk Garko, director, governor’s department, who was
represented by Odessa Ogunmola, noted that the CBN Juniors is now the
number one-ranked junior tennis championship in West Africa, a position
it achieved last year.

A part of the
address said, “A key objective of the social responsibility function of
the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is to make positive contributions to
the development of sports through this championship.

“To this end, we
wish to reaffirm the commitment of the management of the CBN to the
continued sponsorship of the tournament towards the promotion and
development of the game of tennis in Nigeria.”

The competition,
which is open to both boys and girls, will be competed for by
youngsters between the ages of 10 and 18. CBN has also initiated a plan
to set up a ‘futures team’.

The CBN
representative added that: “To further consolidate the gains of the
championship and produce world class players, the International Tennis
Academy is setting up a CBN futures team comprising the best eight
players drawn from the 16s and 18 year olds.

“The players will
be assembled for training and taken as a team to national tournaments
and international ranking events while establishing a strong transition
platform for the senior category and tennis development.”

The above model sponsored by the Bank of Scotland produced the current world number four player, Andy Murray.

The boys and girls who impress during the one-week tourney can win
rackets, tennis gear and also scholarships to some American
universities.

Messi’s two goals settled a scrappy and tense
affair at the Bernabeu and gave Barcelona a huge advantage to take back
to the Nou Camp.

The Argentine met
Ibrahim Afellay’s low cross from the right to steer past Iker Casillas
from close range 14 minutes from time to break the deadlock.

Messi
then netted a wonderful second three minutes from time when he weaved
his way into the Real penalty area and slotted past Casillas to give
the Catalan side a two-goal cushion to take into Tuesday’s return back
in Barcelona.

Mourinho was sent
off for his protestations soon after midfielder Pepe was dismissed in
the 61st minute by referee Wolfgang Stark for a flying tackle on Daniel
Alves.

Tempers had already flared at halftime with players and officials involved in a melee near the tunnel.

Barcelona reserve goalkeeper Jose Manuel Pinto was sent off for his part in an unsightly fracas.

A
confrontation between Barca midfielder Seydou Keita and Real defender
Alvaro Arbeloa as they left the pitch appeared to spark the trouble,
which was quickly ended by security staff and police.

The
Real fans turned the giant arena into a sea of white flags before
kickoff, while several thousand Barca faithful waving Catalan banners
high up in the stands tried to make themselves heard above the din.

Real
tore into Barca and stopped them playing in the first half of last
week’s King’s Cup final but it was a different story on Wednesday as
the visitors dominated possession without showing too much ambition in
attack.

David Villa cut in from
the right wing in the 11th minute and sent a low drive whistling past
the post and Messi sent Xavi clear in the 25th but his effort was
straight at Casillas.

The home
side’s best effort of the first half came moments before the break when
Cristiano Ronaldo tested Victor Valdes with a swerving effort the Barca
keeper just managed to block.

The
second half was short on the kind of attacking football Real and Barca
normally produce as the visitors again controlled the ball without ever
really threatening the home goal until Messi broke the deadlock and
then gave Barca a huge boost for the return leg at the Nou Camp next
Tuesday with his second.</

Not
perturbed about the size of their opponent or lulled by their exploits
so far at the ongoing Africa Youth Championships (AYC), Nigeria’s
Flying Eagles have vowed to win today’s semi-final contest against
fellow West Africans, Mali.

The match, which is
the first of the two semi-final matches billed for today, comes up at
the Dobsonville Stadium in Johannesburg at 11am Nigerian time.

Mali and Nigeria
have met four times at past AYC, with one being a match for third place
in 1995. Of the four matches, Nigeria won two while the other two ended
in draws. However the Malians have been superb in the present edition
of the AYC, scoring the most goals, so far, at the tournament – six.

With their sheer
size and athleticism, the Malians easily overcame their Group ‘A’
opponents, South Africa and Egypt. However, John Obuh, the coach of the
Nigerian team dismissed fears that the size of the Malians would put
them at an advantage over his team. According to Mr Obuh, there is more
to football than the physical size of players.

“Football is not
about size. The most important thing is your brain. After all, the best
player in the world (Argentina’s Lionel Messi) is not the biggest
player around,” he said.

He added: “By the time we clash with them, we will know which will come out tops – (body) size or the brain.”

New target

After achieving
their primary target of making it to the FIFA U-20 World Cup billed for
Colombia later this year, the Flying Eagles now hope to add another
feather to their cap by making it to the final of the AYC.

A win will see the
Flying Eagles make their first final appearance since losing in the
championship game of the 2007 tournament to hosts, Congo; the young
Nigerians are resolute that the goal is attainable.

Chima Uluocha, a
defender, is one of the home-based players in the Flying Eagles team;
he has promised an improved performance from him and his teammates.

“We will improve on
our performance against Gambia to beat Mali. They are a good side but
we are better and have been improving as the tournament progressed,” he
said.

Similarly, Terry
Envoh, a forward, affirmed: “We expect nothing short of victory. We
will be alert, fit, quick and stick to our style of play and game plan
so as to win on Thursday.”

To get to this
stage, Mali defeated hosts South Africa 4-2 in the opening match and
Egypt 1-0, before holding Lesotho to a 1-1 draw to top Group ‘A’.

Nigeria picked the
second spot in Group ‘B’ after beating world and African champions
Ghana 2-1; losing the second game 0-1 to Cameroon before beating Gambia
2-0.

Meanwhile, in today’s other semi-final match, Cameroon and Egypt will be doing battle for the other final ticket.

Both teams had clashed at friendly matches played in Egypt, leading
up to the AYC, with the young Pharaohs defeating their Cameroonian
counterparts on all three occasions.

Schalke
04 are in need of a minor miracle if they are to have any hope of
advancing past Manchester United to the Champions League final after
slumping to a 2-0 home defeat without as much as a fight.

It is not so much
Tuesday’s 2-0 first leg loss that leaves them facing a mountain to
climb in Manchester’s “theatre of dreams” but the lack of belief they
can turn the tie around against a team that could have easily won by
five goals.

The fact that
Schalke had not lost any of their last nine Champions League matches
before Tuesday and won all of their five previous home games in the
competition makes their work in Manchester even more difficult.

“Our starting
position now certainly points to Manchester having the advantage but in
football you never know,” Schalke coach Ralf Rangnick said.

The German coach,
who took over five weeks ago from Felix Magath, said this short time
had not been enough to bind his players into a unit capable of
seriously challenging the three-time European champions.

“Manchester were on
a different level than Inter Milan (in the quarterfinals). We reached
our limits. We will certainly need a wonder to progress,” he said.

No real chance

Schalke, 10th in
the Bundesliga with no real chance of playing in the Champions League
next season, take on Bayern Munich on the weekend hoping a win could
restore some of their lost confidence after United ripped their defence
to shreds for over an hour in a one-sided game.

“We will not give
up in the second leg but the result is pretty clear,” said goalkeeper
Manuel Neuer, who prevented an embarrassingly high-score defeat with
half a dozen superb saves.

His performance was
the solitary Schalke highlight, prompting United coach Sir Alex
Ferguson to label it the best by any goalkeeper against United in his
years in charge.

To have any chance
in the return leg, Schalke need more than just an in-form Neuer. They
must beat United at home, with Manchester having yet to lose this
season in the entire competition, let alone at home.

“Why should we capitulate?” Rangnick asked.

“We need to make things differently and in football many things have
happened. We have shown we can score away from home and we will try to
get our chances in Manchester.”

The
second edition of the Confederation of African Rugby (CAR) North-West
African Women’s Sevens rugby tournament was won by Tunisia over the
Easter weekend as the Nigerian team missed out from the event.

The Nigerian team
had earlier been billed to take part in the tournament. But, according
to Akin Akintola, a representative of the Nigerian Rugby Football
Federation (NRFF), logistics problems ensured that the Nigerian team
were unavailable for the meet.

“We could not get
flights out of the country to Senegal, which was why the ladies could
not make it to the tournament,” said Akintola in a telephone interview
with NEXT.

Tunisia’s women’s
rugby team won the second edition of the tournament at the Sports
College, some 60km from the Senegalese capital, Dakar, after defeating
the hosts 5-0 in a thrilling final. It was a second successive title
for the North Africans who also won the inaugural edition in 2009.

At the last
edition, the Nigerians returned home with a second place finish and
many expected them to go all the way this time around.

Flight arrangements

Expressing
disappointment at this development, Gifty Ann Myers, a representative
of CAR, stated that it should not have happened as Nigeria is looked to
for guidance in the region.

“Flight
arrangements should have been sorted out ahead of time because the NRFF
had almost four months notice to accept and prepare,” she told NEXT
from her base in Accra, Ghana. “We hope that Nigeria will improve on
her administrative structure to avoid such lapses in future.”

One of the
players, Adebimpe Johnson, who had been training for the Senegal
tournament expressed disappointment at the shoddy preparation.

“Sincerely, more
is expected from the NRFF. When I was called for national duty, I was
very happy to be involved, but they left us in confusion not explaining
what was going on. That was very sad,” she lamented.

“We have gone to
Senegal before during the Rugby World Cup African qualifiers, and we
managed to make the trip notwithstanding the challenges of lack of
funds by then,” added Ntiense Williams, a member of CAR’s technical
committee.

“It is not the way
to go especially when we are just returning to international rugby
after a two-years ban by the International Rugby Board,” added Williams
who is of the opinion that it could not have been travel arrangements
that stopped Nigeria from being in the tournament.

Meanwhile, reports
reaching NEXT claim that the inability of the team to feature in
Senegal was because the NRFF did not officially inform the National
Sports Commission (NSC). However, Tony Ohaeri, a spokesman of the NSC,
debunked the claims as rumours.

Seven countries participated at this year’s event. They were
winners Tunisia, Morocco, Cameroun, Egypt, Burkina Faso and Senegal.
Niger, who replaced war-torn Cote d’Ivoire, were disqualified after it
was discovered that they fielded underage players.

Ticket
applications for next year’s London Olympics far exceeded supply with
more than half of the 650 sessions oversubscribed and going to a
ballot, organisers said on Wednesday.

The showcase
opening and closing ceremonies were among those events declared sold
out, with early indications showing that more than 20 million tickets
were applied for and only 6.6 million on offer.

Some 1.8 million
people, more than 95 percent of them British residents eager to be part
of a once-in-a-lifetime home Games, made requests in the six-week
window up to Tuesday’s midnight deadline.

Organisers, who
kept the ticketing website open for an extra hour after a late surge in
demand brought it to a standstill, said applications were received for
every session and every sport in every price range.

“We are thrilled
with the response right across the board, in all sports and all
sessions,” said LOCOG chairman Sebastian Coe in a statement.

“Certain events
have seen massive demand–for example the opening ceremony, which is
more than 10 times oversubscribed–so there will understandably be
disappointment and we will find a way to go back to those people with
other tickets.”

Soldout events

Organisers said
track cycling, rhythmic gymnastics, triathlon, modern pentathlon,
equestrian (cross country) and the opening and closing ceremonies were
sell-out events.

All will go to ballot, as will most of the sessions for swimming and tennis.

LOCOG said they
would now check and de-duplicate applications before running the
ballots to determine who got tickets. Money will then be taken from
accounts from May 10 with customers receiving confirmation in June of
what events they have tickets for.

Unsuccessful applicants will be given further chances in June and July to buy unallocated tickets.

“What is most
encouraging is that the majority of applications are for multiple
tickets and for several sports, which shows that friends and family are
planning to go to the Games together,” said Coe.

Organisers hope to raise about 400 million pounds from ticket sales.

West
Bromwich Albion’s Nigerian forward, Osaze Odemwingie has declared his
readiness to snub any interest from Juventus and stick with the Baggies.

For that to happen
however, the Nigerian international is demanding that West Brom retain
their English Premier League status for another season, and that he be
offered a new contract at the Hawthorns.

Odemwingie has
enjoyed an impressive debut season in the English top flight division,
scoring an impressive 13 goals in 26 starts following his summer
transfer from Russia’s Lokomotiv Moscow.

His performances
for the modest Baggies have caught the attention of a host of top
clubs, both in England and elsewhere across Europe.

Tottenham manager,
Harry Redknapp is reportedly keen on bringing the Nigerian to White
Hart Lane in a bid to bolster his attack for next season’s campaign,
but Italian giants Juventus are most pundits’ favourites to secure the
signature of the former player of French club side, Lille.

West Brom are
however determined to keep the 29-year-old, and are ready to open
negotiations with him over a new deal – something Odemwingie is more
than happy to do, provided the Baggies remain in the Premier League
come the end of the season.

Happy to stay

“I’ve heard a lot
recently about Juventus being interested, but I try not to pay too much
attention to it,” Odemwingie said. “My intention is to continue playing
in England and if West Brom is not relegated I’m only too happy to stay.

West Brom are currently six points clear of relegation with four games remaining in the Premier League season.

“The 13 goals I
have scored in my first year in England is a decent result although I
am aiming for more. Ideally, I would like to finish with at least 15,”
he continued.

He added: “It’s likely that in the summer the management will offer me a new contract on better terms in the summer.”

Jose Mourinho wrote off Real Madrid’s Champions League chances
and accused Barcelona of being favoured by the footballing authorities after
his 10-man side lost their semi-final first leg 2-0 on Wednesday.

Real had midfielder Pepe sent off after 62 minutes and Mourinho
was sent to the stands for his protests soon after, and Lionel Messi took full
advantage to score both goals in a stunned Bernabeu.

“Congratulations to a fantastic football team,” the Real coach
said in a rambling rant at the post-match news conference.

“But congratulations for all they have as well, it must be
difficult to get all this power. Where does this power come from? I don’t know
if it’s because they give UNICEF publicity (on their shirts)?”

Mourinho went on to list Barca’s semifinal victory over Chelsea
in 2009, the Inter Milan semifinal from last season and now “the scandal of the
Bernabeu”, as he suggested unfair red cards had been issued to rivals playing
the Catalan side. “This thing happens in each semifinal,” he said.

“I am here just to ask this question and I hope to get the
answer one day.

“I respect him (Barca coach, Pep Guardiola) a great deal as a
coach and a person…but I would like to see him win a Champions League without
scandals.

“Pep is a fantastic football coach and he has won one Champions
League. I would be ashamed to have won it after the scandal of Stamford Bridge
(when he said Chelsea should have had four penalties).

“I won two Champions Leagues with Porto and Inter and won both
on the pitch. We won with work, effort, sweat and fight.”

Mission impossible

The second of those European crowns came after a famous
rearguard action with 10 men at the Nou Camp last season, losing 1-0 after
having won the first leg 3-1.

However, Mourinho quickly ruled out any chance of another heroic
performance in next Tuesday’s second leg at Barca’s stadium.

“Obviously in the return leg it’s a very difficult mission,” he
added. “It’s not very difficult, it’s impossible.

“They will get to the final and that’s that”

Real have had a player sent off in each of the four ‘Clasicos’
they have played in La Liga, the King’s Cup final and the Champions League this
season, and now will be without the suspended Sergio Ramos and Pepe next week.

Mourinho, who said he was not supposed to be speaking to the
media after having been sent off, will have to watch from the stands.

When asked what he had said to receive the punishment from the
German referee, Wolfgang Stark, he replied: “I didn’t say anything, I just
applauded his decision with two thumbs.

“If I told UEFA and him what I thought and feel, I would end my career now.”
On television replays of the incident he could be seen to say “Well done, well
done” to the fourth official after Pepe was sent off for a high-footed
challenge on Barca fullback Dani Alves.