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Nigeria’s only
surviving club in the CAF Champions League, Heartland on Sunday
recorded their first win of the group stage of the continent’s top club
competition when they beat visiting Egyptian club side, Ismaily.

The encounter
played at the Dan Anyiam Stadium, Owerri ended 2-1 in favour of
Heartland but the team’s coach Samson Siasia will still have cause to
complain about his misfiring forward line as all of his side’s goals
against Ismaily came from defenders.

Heartland needed to
win in order to keep alive their fading hopes for a semi final berth
after failing to win any of their opening three games of the group
stage. And to make matters worse for Siasia’s side, it was the visitors
who shot into the lead after 29 minutes through Mohamed Soliman Ali.

That lead, however,
lasted for only nine minutes before the team’s skipper Ike Thankgod
pulled them back on level terms with the Egyptians who two weeks
earlier defeated Heartland in Egypt 1-0.

Heartland’s last
home encounter against another Egyptian side Al-Ahly, back in July, had
ended in a one-all draw and Owerri fans will be forgiven for thinking
that it was going to be the same case scenario against Ismaily until
former Enugu Rangers captain Chinedu Efugh popped up to score the match
winning goal with five minutes left on the clock.

The win saw
Heartland swapping places with Ismaily in the Group B standings but
anything less than a win in their upcoming game against Al-Ahly in two
weeks time will mark the end of the Owerri side’s Champions League
aspirations.

Eaglets grounded in Congo

It was, however, a
different story in Pointe Noire, Congo where the Nigerian Under 17
national team, the Golden Eaglets, fell to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of
their hosts in an African Junior Championship first round, first leg
qualifier.

The Golden Eaglets,
silver medal winners at the last FIFA World Cup held in Nigeria last
year, fell behind after just eight minutes through a penalty kick goal,
but they afterwards kept the Congolese at bay to go into the dressing
room at the half-time break just a goal down.

Worse was to come
their way in the second half as they conceded a second goal two minutes
before the hour mark before the match’s centre referee from the Central
African Republic Bertrand Bekai issued a red card to the Nigerian coach
Monday Odigie for challenging some of his calls.

Odigie’s expulsion
means he will not be on the bench when both sides meet in the return
leg encounter in Nigeria on September 11.

Only one result
will be good enough for Heartland FC of Owerri today as they try to
resurrect their fading CAF Champions League title aspirations; and that
is victory against visiting Egyptian Club, Ismaily at the Dan Anyiam
Stadium in Owerri.

The Naze
Millionaires, as last year’s losing finalist are fondly called by their
supporters are currently languishing at the bottom of Group B with just
one point and a goal from three matches.

ThankGod Ike who is
the Heartland’s captain says his teammates hope to break their scoring
drought in the league and record their first win of the group stage
against their Egyptian opponent as they go head-on in today’s crucial
tie.

“Everything is
possible in football. It’s unfortunate that we are at the bottom of our
group but all we need is just the three points on Sunday and from there
we can find our way out of the group” he said.

Ike, who was a member of the home-based Super Eagles team that won the WAFU tournament some months back continued:

“We’ve had hard
luck in front of goal and we hope to start scoring against Ismaily on
Sunday. Everybody is serious about winning the game; the club’s
management has told us of the importance of the game and we are
confident of a win” he said.

Interestingly, the
Egyptian team earned their first victory (1-0) in the group stage of
the competition against Heartland in Ismaila a fortnight ago, but Ike
believes his team will make amends in today’s reverse fixture to
brighten their chances of advancing from Group B while also expressing
confidence in the team’s technical bench led by Samson Siasia.

“Our coaches have
been doing a great job and the spirit in camp is very high. Samson
Siasia and Emeka Ezeugo are known names in African football having made
their mark as players. They have given us the needed encouragement and
determination to turn things around,” the Nigerian international said.

Tough task

Meanwhile, the
team’s Head Coach Samson Siasia, says he is focused on the day’s
assignment and not distracted by the Super Eagles job lurking around
the corner.

“The job for me now
is to see Heartland progress in this competition. They were at the
finals last year and it won’t be good to see them do less under me this
time around” the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games silver winning coach said.

Siasia who has
continually found it difficult coaching at club level with previous
stints at local sides JUTH FC and Ocean Boys turning out uneventful
hopes, said he can help Heartland out this time around.

“It’s a tough call
but nothing is impossible. There have been issues but I’m happy the
management has done a lot in terms of paying salaries up-to-date. I
appreciate what the government is doing.

“On the part of the
players, we are trying to give them the confidence to play for
themselves and the country. The Orange CAF Champions League is a big
competition and it will expose the players for other bigger clubs to
see.

“I am happy with
the present situation in camp and I believe we can earn the three
points on Sunday with the mood in camp,” he told cafonline.com.

Goals concern

According to
Siasia, his major concern for the team has been the inability to score
goals despite creating lot of chances – a situation he hopes will
change today.

“We can get things
going once we can start scoring. We still have three games and the
outcome of our match on Sunday will be crucial in our chances of
progressing to the next stage.

“Really, we want to
score goals. If you look at the statistics of our games, we had more
chances and better possession than our opponents had, but we failed to
score.

“This time we don’t
want to just keep possession but score as many goals as possible to
give us a chance of qualifying. We didn’t take our chances before now
but I believe Sunday will be the beginning of a new dawn for us,” he
said.

In Bello Musa
Kofarmata, who scored the opener in the 1-1 draw with Al Ahly in
Owerri; winger John Owoeri and midfielder Ikechukwu Ibenegbu; Siasia
has a potent strike force he believes can help wrestle out the maximum
three points at stake today.

Group standings

The standings in
Group B sees Algeria’s JS Kabylie sit in pole position with the maximum
nine points while Six-time champions Al Ahly are second with four.

Ismaily are third
with three points while Heartland, are currently at the bottom of Group
B with just one point from three matches, only managing to score just
one goal and conceding three.

After today’s match
Heartland will travel to Cairo in the second week of September to play
Al-Ahly before they wrap up their group campaign at home to group
leaders JS Kabylie a week later.

The Reds seek to
repair some of their dented pride after the 3-0 loss to Manchester
City. Roy Hodgson and his team have been given the perfect opportunity
to do so with the visit of newly promoted Albion, who got hammered 6-0,
on the opening day by Chelsea.

It will be strange
surroundings for a lot of the Albion players and playing on the revered
Anfield could be a motivation, or they could be caught in the harsh
glare of the Kop.

Liverpool manager,
Hodgson, has earlier revealed that neither Fernando Torres nor Steven
Gerrard are included in the Reds’ squad that will travel to Trabzonspor
for the second leg of their Europa League tie on Thursday.

Both Steven Gerrard
and Fernando Torres were rested for the trip to Turkey but are expected
to be fit for today’ clash. Argentine Maxi Rodriguez is unwell, whilst
defender Daniel Agger is still suffering from the concussion he got in
the match against Arsenal on the opening day.

Hodgson said, on
Liverpool’s official site – liverpoolfc.tv, that, “Steven Gerrard
unfortunately has had a recurrence of the back problem which he gets
from time to time. The same applies to Agger for Sunday. He played in
the game on Monday which was to some extent against medical advice.

He wanted to play
but felt a bit sick after the game. That’s mainly due to the concussion
he suffered, so it would be foolish for us to risk him.

“Maxi is sick. He’s
in bed at the moment with a bit of gastroenteritis, so he’s out of the
question. With Fernando Torres we’ve made the decision that we don’t
wish to risk him three games in a row at this stage of the season with
him having done so well to get back this quickly.” One other player
that will not be on the Anfield pitch is Javier Mascherano.

A rebel, Mascherano
had refused to play for Liverpool recently and that led to a change of
formation and probably the hiding they got from City.

A statement on
Liverpool’s website read: “Liverpool Football Club have agreed terms
for the transfer of Javier Mascherano to FC Barcelona. The Spanish club
have now been given permission to speak to the Argentina midfielder.”
Without the Argentine captain, Hodgson said, “if we come through it
we’ll come through it stronger.” Liverpool got through and he will hope
they show their strength against the minnows.

Though West Brom
have a new hero in Nigerian striker Osaze Odemwingie, who scored on his
debut against Sunderland to give his new club three precious points,
Anfield may be a road too far for the Nigerian.

City need to change away form

Going away from
their City of Manchester Stadium base has not been good enough and it
probably cost the Blues of Manchester qualification for the lucrative
Champions League. This season has to be different if they are to
challenge for the title and a berth in Europe’s top club competition.

Though things seem
to be going great for the manager with the deepest purse – Roberto
Mancini, four games into the season, his team has scored six goals and
conceded none plus the humbling of Liverpool, which has definitely left
a marker for the rest of the season.

The Italian gaffer
has set up his team in the flexible 4-3-3 formation and his stars have
responded to the challenge. His challenge will be to maintain the edge
when they play away from home against supposedly weaker opponents,
apologies to Sunderland. After the exertions on Thursday against
Timisoara, he will be lining up his best eleven at the Stadium of
Lights today.

Sunderland
meanwhile have not started well and Steve Bruce will be looking for
quick improvements from his team. And Sunderland, will be hoping to
catch the millionaires unawares today.

The Sunderland
manager believes City will be a test for any team in the Premiership
this season. “Games don’t come much tougher than this one in the
Premier League. I watched them against Liverpool and they were
impressive.

“We’ll have a big
crowd behind us – it’ll be a different atmosphere to Tuesday night, for
sure – and we’re looking forward to the challenge.

“Everyone wants to
play against a big team and at the moment they don’t come much bigger
than City with their spending power and the players they’ve brought in.
They’re doing extremely well and we know it will be a tough test.”

Barcelona face Mourinho test

After 12
disappointing months and $358.54 million spent on acquiring the likes
of Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka, Real ended a second successive season
without any silverware.

This season, they
may have made their shrewdest acquisition in Jose Mourinho, who no one
will deny has a winners’ mentality. There have been huge changes at the
Bernebeu with Raul, Guti and Christoph Metzelder making way for younger
stars like Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira, Pedro Leon, Sergio Canales and
Angel Di Maria. Ricardo Carvalho has also been bought to bolster a
suspect defence.

Mourinho has now
become the club’s 11th coach in seven years. He quit Italian side,
Inter Milan, after leading them to an historic treble of UEFA Champions
League, Serie A and Coppa Italia titles last season.

In preparing for
the season, Madrid has won four and drawn two of its six pre-season
games, but the Portuguese tactician believes there is still room for
improvement.

“Our pre-season has
been very difficult. With a new coach and six signing, we haven’t had
much time to work if we want play differently.

“We are satisfied with how we’ve been doing and we will improve with time. This is a very young squad, but full of quality.

“The important
thing is that we can grow, that we are solid, and to play at a
medium-high level while being consistent in our style of play and
results.”

The Real team will
be without Fernando Gago and Kaka and defenders Pepe, Ezequiel Garay
and Raul Albiol are also out of the trip to Mallorca.

Mourinho has made
clear he prefers to play Cristiano Ronaldo on the wing rather than as a
centre forward, with Gonzalo Higuain likely to start up front.

Mourinho will be up
against a former Real great in Michael Laudrup who also just assumed
stewardship of Mallorca. He took over after the departure of Gregorio
Manzano.

Mallorca had a fruitful last season and just missed out on qualifying for the UEFA Champions League.

They also possess a
scary home record – 15 wins in 19 home matches. They will not be in the
Europa Cup as they were denied entrance for financial reasons.

Two-time reigning
champion Barcelona has made just a couple of additions in the form of
David Villa, but that is a key addition. They are also looking to
offload Zlatan Ibrahimovic to AC Milan.

One has to recall
that eight members of Spain’s FIFA World Cup-winning squad now reside
at the Nou Camp. They have also brought in the very versatile
Brazilian, Adriano from Sevilla.

The midfield will
be bolstered by the arrival of Javier Mascherano from Liverpool to fill
the void left by the sale of Yaya Toure to Manchester City.

The race in La Liga is shaping out to be a two horse race. Barcelona know the threat of Mourinho,

having knocked the
Catalans out of the 2009/2010 UEFA Champions League and the dream of
achieving an unprecedented consecutive Champions League wins. He will
be the major threat as the Camp Nou team set out to win a third
consecutive La Liga title.

How time flies. It
is already a year since new mum Kim Clijsters proved her “come back
queen” status by winning the 2009 US open and Roger Federer, bidding
for sixth title in a row at flushing meadows, surrendered his crown to
Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro.

Once again it is
the last grand slam of the year and as usual it promises to be
exciting, more on the men’s side than on the women’s. It is no longer
news that Serena Williams pulled out of the US open claiming injury.
Something tells me she may never play there again after she was treated
badly in her semi-final match against Clijsters last year. If you are
in doubt, ask the organisers of Indian wells where the sisters have not
played in over 7 years because of racial abuse.

Serena, the
greatest player of this generation, will be sorely missed. There’s just
something extra special the Williams sisters bring to every tournament
they enter.

Bad for Serena,
good for Caroline Wozniacki as she gets her first top seed in a grand
slam. A finalist at last year’s US open, she is one of the favourites
to lift the trophy at Queens in a fortnight. Why not? She is a hard
worker and full of confidence after topping the US open series. She
must be motivated by the fact that she goes away with £2.7m if she wins
the title. Wozniacki does have the determination and experience and
according to her “I feel I’ve definitely got more experience and I know
how it feels to be in a Grand Slam final.” As long as she doesn’t get
burned out from all the play before the Open she has a real shot
coupled with the fact that the American Grand Slam tournament will be
without two-time champion Justine Henin. Three other past U.S. Open
winners -Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova and Kim Clijsters have been
injured recently.

By the way what are our expectations of American teenager Melanie Oudin after her great run to the quarter-final last year?

The men’s half

Over to the men’s
draw which proves to be more exciting. Top seeds are the usual
suspects. Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.
Further down are the likes of Andy Roddick, Robin Soderling, Nikolay
Davydenko, Tomas Berdych, Fernando Verdasco and Mardy Fish who took
Federer to the wire at last Sundays Cincinnati final. The Fedexpress
won his 63rd career title and tied Bjorn Borg for fifth place in the
Open Era.

Truth is, a diverse
new range of playing styles is emerging in the men’s game. We’ve long
been familiar with Roger Federer’s comprehensive brilliance, but
everything from the diversification of Rafael Nadal to the tactical
nuance of Andy Murray and Gilles Simon and the all-court prowess of Del
Potro, Tsonga and James Blake have brought excitement to ATP. But
Federer is always a force to reckon with especially when it comes to
grand slams. So as always, the 16 Grand Slams title winner is the
hottest favourite going into the US open. Andy Murray has been
brilliant in the US open series. He beat both Federer and Nadal to win
the Toronto masters, though he crashed out in the semi-final of the
Cincinnati masters. Question though is can he “do it” when it really
matters considering he’s come close to winning his maiden Grand Slam
and lost to the great Roger Federer in both finals.

Though Nadal has never made it past the semi-final here, in seeking to complete the career Grand Slam,

he will be the
top-seeded man when the U.S. Open starts today. Despite Nadal’s not too
impressive run to the US open, he will still be a force in any
tournament.

Unfortunately Del
Potro becomes the third U.S. Open men’s champion in the 42-year Open
era that will not defend his title. He pulled out because of tendinitis
in the wrist.

Alongside Del
Potro, two other men withdrew late Friday, No. 10-ranked Jo-Wilfred
Tsonga of France and three-time U.S. Open quarterfinalist Tommy Haas.

And by the way, one other man that excites me and should not be written off is David Nalbadian.

After been
side-lined for over a year, he recently gave us another example of how
talented he is. Will he emulate his compatriot and have another
Argentine shine for a second straight year? Only time will tell.

While we look
forward to watching good tennis, we also look forward to the fashion
statements to be made as we are now used to seeing in the game of
tennis. After all the Williams sisters, Sharapova, Federer and Nadal
have shown us that you don’t have to be a “plain-Jane” to win titles.

Five members of the
Super Eagles team last week made the cut with their respective club
sides to feature in the 2010/2011 group phase of the UEFA Champions
League competition. They are goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama (Hapoel
Tel-Aviv) defenders; Elderson Echiejile (SC Braga) and Taiye Taiwo
(Marseille), Obafemi Martins(Rubin Kazan) and Mikel Obi (Chelsea).

This is somewhat an
improvement as only two Super Eagles – Mikel Obi of Chelsea and Taye
Taiwo of Marseille, players made it to this stage of the tournament
last time out.

For this lucky
five, enacting the feat so far achieved by only two Nigerians – Kanu
Nwankwo and Finidi George – which is a Champions League crown, will be
the ultimate goal.

Of the lot, Chelsea
midfielder, Mikel Obi is the closest to joining the league of African
players that have lifted the coveted trophy as his team lost narrowly
in finals of the 2008/09 season and only got knocked out in the quarter
finals last season. His team nevertheless remains one of the strongest
favourites in this year’s race.

While the likes of
Mikel, Taiwo and Martins have featured previously at this stage of the
competition, it is a debut appearance for the duo of Enyeama and
Echeijle who only recently moved from the French League to Portugal to
join Sporting Braga.

For Enyeama making
it thus far is a dream come true; “it is a ‘fulfilled dream’ to have
the chance to play in the UEFA Champions’ League group phase” he said.

The number one shot
stopper for the country not only proved to a safe pair of hands but
went further to score a goal in his team’s 4-3 over Red Bull Salzburg
of Austria to boost his team’s qualification quest.

“It has always been
my dream to play in the UEFA Champions League and this was an
opportunity I did not want to miss,” Enyeama told UEFA.com after his
team’s qualification.

“I have played in
every competition and this was the only one left. It is good to get a
chance to play against the best players in the world.” he added.

Indeed, the history
of the UEFA Champions League is incomplete without the mention of
Nigeria as the competition’s first goal in its present format was
scored by Nigeria’s Daniel Amokachi while he was with Belgian outfit FC
Brugge.

Expectedly, that
moment is one of the most cherished in the illustrious career of the
ex-international who was also a former assistant coach in the country’s
national team.

Real are in the group of death

Thursday’s draws
has set the stage to determine which team takes over the reign of
European football from Inter Milan which emerged champions after forty
eight years of fruitless efforts.

Inter, under their
new boss Rafa Benitez, will face Werder Bremen and Champions League
debutants Tottenham Hotspur and Twente Enschede of the Netherlands in
Group A,

Spurs are one of three London sides in the competition and familiar foes to Benitez from his time with Liverpool.

Group G has to be
the most difficult group to call with Real Madrid under Jose Mourinho,
the 9-time winners, 7-time champions AC Milan, Ajax who are also former
champions, and French outfit, Auxerre. But as Marseille and Bordeaux
showed in the last competition, French clubs seem to understand the
European terrain a little bit better.

Barcelona, European
champions in 2009, will face Panathinaikos, FC Copenhagen and Rubin
Kazan of Russia in Group D, looking to avenge the shock home defeat to
the Russians who beat them 2-1 at the Nou Camp in the group stage last
season.

Manchester United,
winners in 2008 face Valencia, Rangers and Bursaspor of Turkey with the
Rangers match especially poignant for United boss Alex Ferguson, who
once played for Rangers and still has close links with his home city of
Glasgow.

United are among
the quartet of English clubs including Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs who
all have extra incentive to lift the European Cup this season with the
final at Wembley in May.

Arsenal’s chief
executive Ivan Gazidis was already eying a place there after his club
were drawn against Braga, Shakhtar Donetsk and Partizan Belgrade.

Steel and experience

“We have a real
incentive to win it this year with the final at Wembley. We have added
steel and experience to the side and we are one year older and more
experienced and are going for it,” Gazidis told reporters.

Chelsea, who are
familiar visitors to Wembley having won the last two FA Cups there,
return to Moscow where they lost the 2008 final to Manchester United,
with a match against Spartak.

Chelsea will also
face Zilina of Slovakia and Olympique Marseille, with their talismanic
striker Didier Drogba no doubt relishing the battle against his old
club.

Bayern Munich, who lost May’s final to Inter, will face AS Roma, Basel and CFR Cluj.

Real Madrid and
Milan’s rivalry goes back to the first season of European competition
in 1955-56 when Real beat Milan in the semi-finals and in all they have
played each other 13 times with Milan winning six times and Real five.

Ajax have also enjoyed memorable final showdowns with Milan, with the Italians triumphing in 1969 and the Dutch in 1995.

While Real, Milan
and Ajax will be looking to revive old glories, Inter will be seeking
to become the first club to retain the European Cup in the Champions
League era.

“It’s a tasty
group,” said Inter’s Ambassador Luis Figo. “Werder Bremen are very
physical, Spurs have a lot of pace but our aim is to play in the final
at Wembley.” The group phase begins on September 14/15 and concludes on
December 7/8. The final is at Wembley on May 28.

The elections into
the board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) have come and gone
with Aminu Maigari emerging as the 38th boss of the body.

It was a landslide
victory for the former director of finance of the federation who until
his victory at Thursday’s polls had been the acting president of the
football house following the impeachment of Sani Lulu. Maigari grabbed
31 out of the 44 votes from delegates present at the International
Conference Centre in Abuja, well ahead of other aspirants, with his
closest rival former NFF Secretary General, Sani Toro, securing just
five votes.

Nine other
individuals were elected into the board and they will be joined by the
current chairman of the Nigeria Premier League, Davidson Owumi, who
will act as the federation’s 2nd vice president.

Court injunctions

But it wasn’t
smooth sailing for Maigari as the process was dogged by controversy.
Originally scheduled for Saturday, August 21, it was shifted to last
Thursday by the Congress of the federation at the request of the
Minister of Sports, Ibrahim Bio, who requested that he be given time to
apprise President Goodluck Jonathan on developments surrounding the
elections.

Before the decision
was taken, a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos had issued an order
restraining the NFF from going ahead with the elections at the
originally scheduled date of August 21 pending the hearing and
determination of a motion filed by the registered trustees of the
National Association of Nigerian Footballers (NANF) led by Harrison
Jalla.

NANF had filed the
suit against the NFF, alleging that the process of the election had
been perfected without recourse to its members and the court decided
that it would be improper to allow the elections to take place when
there was a pending motion before it seeking to restrain its conduct,
and subsequently ordered all the parties involved with the electoral
process to maintain the status quo pending the determination of the
motion filed by the players’ union.

The order from the High Court sitting in Lagos was not the only one issued on the election as two others,

including one from a court sitting in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, also called on the NFF to postpone the polls.

Ex-players united

On Tuesday, August
24, two days before the NFF elections, a group of placard carrying
ex-footballers led by former national team captains Segun Odegbami and
Austin Okocha, who were aspiring to get into the NFF, as president and
board member respectively, stormed Abuja clamouring for the
postponement of the elections.

Numbering close to
30, the group, which also had in their midst other prominent ex-players
like former African Player of the Year Victor Ikpeba and 1980 Nations
Cup hero Felix Owolabi, faulted the entire electoral process. They
complained of a situation whereby state football association members
who were elected in 2006 and whose tenures had expired formed part of
the delegates at the election when they had not renewed their mandate.

Rounding off their
protest, they urged the National Sports Commission (NSC) and other
relevant authorities to prevent the elections from taking place.

Protesting to FIFA

Before last
Tuesday’s protest, Odegbami had in June notified football’s world
governing body, FIFA of certain amendments made within the existing
statutes of the NFF.

Before the August
2006 elections, which ushered in Lulu as the NFF president, local
government football councils, state associations and Zonal elections
were all held and winners given four-year mandates. These individuals
then voted and elected members into the Executive Committee of which
Lulu was head.

Odegbami, in his
letter to FIFA, reasoned that it was only logical that elections at the
zones must first be held – following the expiration of their tenures –
in order to constitute a new electorate to conduct new elections into
the next Executive Committee, stressing that “to hold elections without
holding constituency elections means that the delegates that elected
the out-going board would be the same delegates that would elect the
next board”, a process he described as “totally absurd, undemocratic
and unacceptable.” This process of bypassing this step by the NFF began
in August 2009 when it sent a draft of its amended statutes to FIFA
seeking, in line with laid down rules, its comments and approval, which
the world body responded to in November of that year with amendments of
its own to some areas in order for the document to be in line with the
organisation’s requirements.

Part of FIFA’s
letter to the NFF, stated that: “We hope that the previous explanations
are of assistance and allow you to review the NFF Statutes accordingly.
Please give maximum priority to the revision, the approval and
subsequent ratification of the NFF Statutes.

Amendment of the statutes

In December 2009
the NFF convened a meeting of the General Assembly to inform its
members of the suggested amendments by FIFA. However, for the amended
statutes to become operational it would require sending the statutes to
FIFA all over again for confirmation that the amendments have been done
correctly for final approval before being presented again to the
General Assembly for final ratification.

A presentation of
the amended statutes to members of the General Assembly was however not
done before it came into law but not before two major amendments – the
reduction of voting delegates from 101 to 44, and the directive to each
State Football Association to have its elective congress in November or
December succeeding the elective congress of the Federation within the
senior FIFA World Cup year.

The latter
interpolation meant that after electing the Executive Committee of the
NFF, the 37 State FA bosses will thereafter go back to their respective
constituencies to seek a new four-year mandate into their own boards.

Odegbami then went
on to plead with FIFA to advise the NFF to stop the “electoral process
until all the anomalies in the conflicting statutes and processes are
resolved”.

Denials

FIFA however
appeared to have turned a deaf ear on the issue even though it sent
officials to observe the electoral process, which eventually took place
despite a court order calling for the postponement of the polls,
receipt of which was denied by the NFF, as well as the chairman of the
electoral committee Abdulrahman Mustapha.

“I never got an
order telling us not to hold an election,” said Mustapha, shortly after
the polls. “I respect the rule of law and if I got anything like that I
would have stopped the entire process.” Jalla who went to the election
venue to personally serve the court order to the electoral committee’s
boss but he was prevented from doing so by security officials stationed
outside the venue even though he had gone to the venue with a team of
15 policemen and two court bailiffs.

“We had served the
NFF, the sports minister (Ibrahim Bio) and the NPL, but I personally
and the bailiffs had wanted to serve Mustapha in person,” Jalla told
NEXTSports on Thursday.

“But when we got to
the venue it almost degenerated into a scuffle between us and the
security team at the venue.” Back to the courtrooms He will however be
heading back to court on Monday when hearing of the case resumes.

Also considering a petition is Odegbami who pulled out of the race in line with the court injunction ordering its suspension.

“When the court
injunction came I decided not to be lawless, so I stayed away from the
venue in line with the decision of the court that the elections should
not be held,” he said.

Odegbami then
added: “My contributions to Nigerian football will continue in my own
way. I wish I was at the head of the federation but I’m not, so in
whatever way one can, one will continue to support them but I’ll pursue
my petition before FIFA to the very end.” How successful such a path
will be, only time will tell, but the immediate reality is that the
country’s football will be run mostly by ‘freshmen’ as only two members
of the previous Executive Committee were returned – Maigari and Chris
Green, the Rivers State FA boss who defeated Okocha to pick the ticket
from the South-south zone.

Green wasn’t the
only state FA boss to be elected as four others also made it into the
board while not a single former Nigeria international was considered
good enough to earn a place in the board including former national team
skipper and coach Christian Chukwu and Mutiu Adepoju.

“This is ridiculous and unbelievable,” said an enraged Bright Omokaro, a former national team player.

“I just cannot imagine what is happening to our football. Those who know nothing about football are now managing the game.

“We were all happy
when we saw some ex-internationals coming out to contest this election
but look at what they have done again. There is no way our football can
move forward with this set of people we have on board managing the
game,” he added.

Enyimba’s chairman Felix Anyasi and football analyst Deji Tinubu
however earned a place in the board and Nigerians will be hoping their
presence in the board will in some way translate into some measure of
success and development for Nigerian football at all levels, from the
grassroots to the numerous league and cup competitions, right down to
the various national teams.

West Ham United have signed Nigeria forward Victor Obinna on a season-long
loan from Inter Milan, the English premier league club said on Friday.

The 23-year-old passed a medical after
holding talks at Upton Park and the club’s training ground, West Ham said on
their website (www.whufc.com).

Obinna, who began his Inter career in 2008, spent last season on loan at
Spanish side Malaga. He has won 34 caps for Nigeria, and appeared twice in the
World Cup in South Africa as his country were eliminated in the first round.

Obinna is West Ham’s sixth acquisition for the new season. They face
Manchester United at Old Trafford in the Premier League on Saturday.