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Imagine Lionel Messi playing football
with his eyes closed or Jay-Jay Okocha making his wonderful moves while
blindfolded; that excitement is what obtains in Blind Football; a game
which is gradually getting its roots in Nigeria.

Though the country is yet make it to
the zenith of the game whose World Cup finals comes up later today in
Hereford, England, the brain behind the game in the Nigeria – Yinka
Gbadamosi – is optimistic that the country’s team, the Light Eagles
will make it to the 2012 edition.

“We are making progress every day (and)
by 2012, we should be able to make our first appearance at the World
Cup even though we might not be able to make much impact,” he said.

Gbadamosi, who lost his sight as a
young boy says his dream and passion is to see blind use their other
senses to make a living, with sports being one of the platforms to
achieve that aim.

“Losing one’s sight is not supposed to
be the end to the world. You can still do a lot with the other senses
God has given you. I use to be a goalkeeper before losing my sight but
it did not end there even after going blind,” he said.

The Blind game

Whereas mainstream
football around the world is played amidst a colourful and noisy
backdrop, the silence in the blind version of the game is somewhat
striking.

Etiquette dictates
that spectators remain quiet unless the ball goes out of play because
players need to be able to hear each other and more crucially, the
ball. The ball contains ball bearings, which means its motion makes a
gentle rattling noise that helps players to locate it.

Expectedly, the style of play is different too.

Passes cover a
shorter distance and as players try not to let the ball stray more than
a few inches from their feet, making nimble footwork and a command of
the ball vital.

Mesmeric footwork,
accurate passing and the ever-present rattling of the ball gives the
game a hypnotic quality that makes it easy to forget that the players
can’t see what they’re kicking.

There are
occasional reminders – perhaps a misplaced pass allows the ball to roll
away, or the action stops and the spectator’s gaze lifts from the
players’ feet to the unfamiliar sight of footballers wearing eye
patches.

Development in Nigeria

According to
Gbadamosi there just two teams here in Nigeria for now, they are AF
Rovers, which is run by the wife of Lagos State governor Abimbola
Fasola and Ituah Babes which is owned by Ituah Ighodalo, a Pastor.

“We hope to have
more teams come on board very soon as more people are beginning to
appreciate what we are doing,” Gbadamosi said.

Blind football was
first exhibited in Nigeria on May 2, 2008 and a little over two years
later, the game is gradually getting some attention.

Gbadamosi however
said that it has not been too rosy getting along as his organisation
has been plagued with financial challenges and some administrative
bottle necks.

“We are currently
affiliated with the Lagos State Football Association; they actually
registered us for free but we have not been able to secure registration
with the Corporate Affairs Commission and the National Sports
Commission,” he said.

While believing
that these hurdles will soon be crossed, Gbadomsi also called for
support from well meaning Nigerians, corporate bodies and more
importantly the government.

Of the Ten teams scheduled to participate in this year’s Blind World Cup, Cameroun is the only country from Africa.

With two days to
the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) elections initially scheduled for
yesterday, it looked like the men in the executive committee of the
football body were bigger than the rest of the country.

Against the
dictates of sound judgment, fair play and due process, they were bent
on going ahead with the elections, which had been programmed by deposed
president, Sani Lulu, to produce a particular outcome.

Entreaties from
their cronies that they back down; subtle threats from the sports
ministry, which could not openly bare its fangs after being stared down
by FIFA during President Goodluck Jonathan’s ban on the national teams;
ruling by two courts ordering stay of action on the polls; and protest
from some candidates in the elections that there were booby traps in
the process, appeared to have failed to elicit a change of heart from
Maigari and his team.

Indeed, on Thursday
in Abuja, Abdukareem Mustapha, chairman of the electoral committee,
echoing the voices of his masters in the executive committee told a
reporter that there was no going back on the elections.

“There is no
stopping the elections. It is only the congress that can decide to
change the date. As long as such instruction has not been given, there
is no reason to postpone the exercise,” he said.

Yet that same
Thursday, Maigari and his team capitulated to commonsense. After a
nocturnal parley in Abuja, the committee finally saw the futility in
stubbornly insisting on going ahead with an election everyone knew had
been rigged in advance by Lulu’s mindless tinkering with the statutes.

The congress of the
body was scheduled to meet yesterday to decide on the next line of
action. That meeting had not taken place at the time this piece was
written.

For me as a
journalist and football fan, I have been hugely disappointed by
developments in the last two weeks regarding the election. I have been
upset by the chicanery of the NFF officials who have damned public
opinion when it did not mesh with their inordinate ambition of
remaining in office to continue throttling Nigerian football.

I have been
saddened by the attitude of some of my colleagues who refused to do
what was right by putting pressure on the self-seeking cabal making us
the laughing stock of the international community by their knavery.

Most importantly,
my anger has been intense towards world football governing body, FIFA,
whose silence on this very important matter suggests complicity in the
ruining of Nigerian football by a few individuals.

For a body, which
preaches fair play, its silence has been baffling. That FIFA could
remain silent on such a serious issue after two very lucid and straight
forward letters sent to it by Segun Odegbami, one of the contestants
for the NFF presidency on the distortion of NFF statutes by Lulu, just
goes to prove like some of us have insisted in the past that Sepp
Blatter and his team in Zurich do not care much for the development of
Nigerian football.

Is it not
surprising that while FIFA failed to react to Odegbami’s letter and
others sent to it by concerned members of the football family, it did
not waste time in ordering the NFF to sort out issues arising from the
election of Davidson Owumi as chairman of the Nigeria Premier League.
FIFA’s action can be likened to that of a man who with his family
trapped in a midnight inferno in their apartment, will first move to
remove electronic gadgets in the living room.

Stopping State FA chairmen

Events of the last
few weeks have shown in the starkest way possible that there is serious
crisis in Nigerian football. This should be clear to even a casual
observer of events that have unfolded since the World Cup ended in
South Africa last month.

The first sign that
things were worsening came with the NFF congress of July 9 where
delegates were expected to take a hard look at the statutes
cannibalised by Lulu and do the sensible thing by correcting them.
Instead, they blandly endorsed the document without even as much as
perusing it.

My initial response
was shock and disappointment but after having had time to reflect on
the whole issue, I have since found out that it could not have been any
other way. And the reason is simply that the men who hold sway as
chairmen of the state football associations are too much a part of the
rot to be concerned about change. The State FA Chairmen lack the moral
capital to spearhead a revolution in Nigeria football.

Asking them to do so will be like asking a grave digger to shovel sand from the spot upon which he is standing.

This revelation has
naturally led me to conclude that unless these men are removed from the
picture there is no way a truly independent candidate can emerge to
lead the NFF. The challenge before Odegbami, Lumumba Adeh and the other
contestants therefore, is to devise means of ensuring that if elections
into the state FAs eventually hold that these men are eased out of
power.

I will wager here that if these FA chairmen stand for elections and win then the status quo will be maintained.

Samson Siasia will
have to wait for a much longer time before he gets to actualise his
dream of handling the Super Eagles after the Nigeria Football
Federation, late on Thursday, at the end of its emergency meeting,
ordered the interim coach of the Super Eagles Augustine Eguavoen to
continue for the time being.

The NFF said the
decision to stick to Eguavoen was hinged on the short time between now
and the national team’s upcoming African Cup of Nations qualifying
match against Madagascar billed for September 5 in Abuja.

Eguavoen, who
assisted former coach Lars Lagerback at the World Cup in South Africa,
and who had also previously been in charge of the Super Eagles for two
years between 2005 and 2007, was in charge earlier in the month when
the Super Eagles played South Korea in an international friendly in
Seoul. Nigeria lost 2-1.

The former Super
Eagles defender immediately set about the task of qualifying the
national team for the next African Cup of Nations scheduled for 2012 in
Gabon and Equatorial Guinea by naming a 26-man squad made up of a
mixture of domestic and foreign based players for the encounter against
the Indian Ocean island nation.

Besides the short
time left between now and the game against the Madagascans, another
reason given by the NFF for its decision was the fact that the tenure
of the current NFF board will expire in a couple of weeks and it will
be unwise for them to name a coach whose appointment might be annulled
by the incoming board, especially if the incoming board have a
different person in mind for the job.

NFF Elections

With elections
likely to be held at the various state Football Association before they
are held at the national level, no one knows for sure when the new
board will be constituted.

Given the fact that
Siasia had been in the frame for the job since it became clear that
Lagerback would not be returning to Nigeria, it is surprising that
contract talks between him and the NFF dragged on for long eventually
leading to the present cul-de-sac.

One reason
attributed to this was the salary demanded by the former Super Eagles
striker. Siasia reportedly asked for a monthly salary of $100,000 in
addition to a $1 million sign on fee, which the NFF refused.

Berti Vogts, who
led the Super Eagles to the 2008 African Cup of Nations in Ghana earned
$30,000 monthly while Lagerback grabbed a princely $330,000 but his
salary was bankrolled by the Presidential Task Force while Vogts’ was
taken care of by telecoms service providers Globacom.

Funds

Without a sponsor
as was the case with Vogts and Lagerback, it will be difficult for the
NFF to pay Siasia as much as he is reportedly demanding but both
parties may eventually settle for a sum in the region of $50,000.

“We’ll not pay
Siasia a salary that we’ll turn around later to default on. If I may
recall, the salary we paid Berti Vogts was offset by Globacom. That of
the immediate past coach of the Eagles, Lars Lagerback was paid by the
Presidential Task Force because of the World Cup. Shuaibu Amodu, whom
the FA paid by itself, did not earn what Siasia is demanding for right
now. I think we should go for what we can afford to offer in order for
anybody not to regret it later in the future,” Emmanuel Ikpeme, the
assistant secretary of the NFF, said.

Regardless of what
both parties eventually settle for, Siasia insists that he will only
settle for a sum that will enable him to facilitate the hiring of his
coaching assistants, most likely two expatriates, who will assist him
in his task of rebuilding the Super Eagles.

Negotiable demand

Although Siasia,
who in his previous stints with the national U-20 and U-23 sides had
always hired foreign assistants, initially refused to disclose exactly
how much he felt would be enough remuneration for handling the Super
Eagles, he later admitted to demanding N12 million from the federation.

“Of course I am not saying they must pay the 12 million naira; we
can negotiate and come to an agreement but I won’t take peanuts,”
Siasia had said.

Preparations are reaching a feverish pace for elections into the coveted office of the Nigerian Football Federation with the states and zones of Nigeria presenting candidates pursuant to the laws that govern our football.

But then, a sport is recreation and is voluntary. It is therefore incongruous for governments to legislate on sport(s) as you play and recreate when, with whom and how you want to. Persons involved in recreation voluntarily organise their recreation whether in the form of games and sports or any other activity upon their leisure and pleasure. Governments and their law making bodies, the legislature have no business proposing, debating and passing laws on how to play or when to play.

In the same way that the constitutions of nations enshrine provisions on freedom of association, we associate with whom we want to, recreate with whom we want to and play with whom we choose. These rules that govern associations freely entered into by their participants or members essentially gave rise to organised sports like association football also known as Soccer.

Outside of the above argument on the intrinsic nature of recreation, sport(s) and games which renders governmental legislation on sports awkward, from the purely legal and constitutional standpoint, our largely borrowed federal constitution contains in its schedule, two legislative lists, an Exclusive List with matters enumerated therein reserved for the National Assembly, and a Concurrent List which contains matters that both the National and State Houses of Assembly may concurrently legislate upon. Sport(s) is not included in either list and is therefore a residual matter, which can only be legislated upon by a state’s house of assembly.

The effect of the foregoing, is that all federal legislations as they impact on sport(s) including the act which creates the National Sports Commission (if there is any) and Decree 101 under which our football in the form of the Nigerian Football Association Act and its illegitimate successor, the Nigerian Football Federation are hinged, are all constitutionally void. The NFF is a bastard (for want of a more appropriate term) because its statutes were “manufactured” by a body without legitimacy. An association created by an unconstitutional legislation that changed its statutes without due process and transmuted into a federation courtesy of “government” represented by Lulu, Ojo-Oba and their godfather, Amos Adamu.

As we proceed to restructure our football, following our less than satisfactory performance in South Africa, the Technical Committee set up for the purpose by President Jonathan must recognise this unique opportunity to do things right. The Committee must understand that the problem is not football but all of our sports and that the cause of the problem is essentially that of a cabal in government that insists on intermeddling with sport(s) for their own personal gain, using the agency of “government” as a vehicle.

Indeed the only reason why “government” insists that they must organise and fund our sports is due to the system of government we have allowed to blossom in Nigeria. Without mincing words, we operate a Kleptocracy, which as defined by Wikipedia is:

“A term applied to a government that takes advantage of governmental corruption to extend the personal wealth and political power of government officials and the ruling class (collectively kleptocrats), via the embezzlement of state funds at the expense of the wider population, sometimes without even the pretense of honest services………………… The term is a pejorative for governments perceived to have a particular severe and systemic problem with the selfish misappropriation of public funds by those in power”.

An argument is made by this ever-widening circle of persons headed by civil servants, career politicians and their fiendish lackeys to the effect that government is the sole sponsor of sports in Nigeria and therefore should call all the shots through the National Sports Commission (NSC) or Ministry of Sports at both the federal and state levels. The effect is that the NSC, the sports associations and even the National Olympic Committee (NOC) have become money sharing agencies.
Virtually every football club in the Nigerian Premier League is owned by a state government with a state commissioner for sports or civil servant director of sports as chairman. Budgetary allocations are made on an annual basis for running football clubs as a means of siphoning large sums of money, most of which is earmarked for sign-on fees for footballers, who never receive the monies.

Entrepreneurship, passion and love for the game are sacrificed. Spurious legislations are passed defining and delimiting membership of associations to civil servants and other government workers including the Police, Army, Customs and even Civil-Defence and Yellow-Fever. A man like Cosmas Maduka who built Coscharis and who loves and can finance table-tennis can only be a member of the table-tennis association by default as a nominee of government: Segun Odegbami who possibly has invested more in football than anyone else besides the late Nathaniel Idowu and M.K.O Abiola may not even be able to qualify for membership of the NFF because of this diabolical system spurned by greed and avarice. An unreal situation where a serving minister wants to be chairman of the NOC and is involved in a do-or-die battle with a civil servant is created. Meanwhile, the rest of us are excluded by the near impossible cultic rules they have devised for themselves for membership of the NOC and the other sports associations. The result: Nigeria, its sports and youth suffer.

Truth be told, sports is self-financing. Football definitely does not need government. It is an industry the world over fueled by gate-takings, television rights, merchandising, endorsements, branding and intellectual property. To obtain the television rights of the English Premier League in Nigeria only, the asking price is $40,000,000 (=N=6,000,000,000) per annum paid by Nigerians from Nigeria through DSTV to the English Premier League Ltd (a private business not government).
FIFA owns the game and is going to distribute a lot of money to its member associations from time to time. Our local laws and institutions are sufficient to provide a platform for voluntary associations organised under Articles of Association to run all sports. Molade Okoya-Thomas has organised his annual Asoju-Oba table-tennis competition for decades. Every kobo he spends is tax deductible under our tax laws. In effect, he loses absolutely nothing.
Corporate bodies, individuals, voluntary bodies and religious bodies will fall over themselves to organise competitions ranging from football, to cycling, to boxing all designed to develop the youth through sports (not sports development) if only there is accountability.
But then, with “government”, nobody accounts. It’s all fair game. You can steal all you like. What did it cost to host the Under-17 Tourney last year? The answer is blowing in the wind.

For international competitions, the world over, the local NOC’S are funded by the International Olympic Committee to prepare athletes and any short fall can be funded through organised private effort. In the U.S.A it was through Team U.S.A and in Nigeria following the international model, through Team Nigeria, which is a duly incorporated NGO, but which “government” has refused to let loose to fend for itself.
Funding for school sports should be the responsibility of the ministries of education in the federal and state levels through the School Sports Federation, NUGA and others. Instead of following this model, we hear spurious things championed by Patrick Ekeji about Public Private Participation (P.P.P), which he uses to confuse greenhorn sports ministers, and involves outsourcing the sports associations to corporate bodies – a booby-trapped scheme designed to fail. Pray, how do you give out what does not belong to you?

In serious countries, no laws are passed by parliament to organise football or basketball or boxing or swimming or judo or sudoku or langa-langa (that one-legged sport discovered in Northern Nigeria some years back) or judo or taekwando. New Games and sports evolve and governments don’t legislate on them nor impose members on associations.
Membership of sports associations is voluntary and even the Police or Army which are creations of statute and therefore legal persons can choose to belong to these associations in the same way as you or I or P.Z Industries may. Membership as contained in the Articles of Association of each sports association may provide for criteria for membership, whether corporate or private and any legal person, natural or artificial should be free to join upon meeting these criteria. In short, you may come and you may go.

The English Football Association is a duly incorporated body organised under articles of agreement among its members. The English Premier League is a registered business. In the U.S, the National Basketball Association (N.B.A) is organised along the same lines. Even in South Africa, The South African Football Association (S.A.F.A) is an amalgamation of three regional football associations that came together after apartheid to organise South African football.

For amateur sports, in the U.S.A., all amateur sports are chartered to their National Olympic Committees, which are members of the International Olympic Committee. They receive subventions from their world bodies and are left to raise monies from their members and pursue their activities in a business manner through competitions, gate takings, television, merchandising, sponsorships and charities. Like in Nigeria, appropriate legislation is in place to render all donations to sports and other charitable giving, tax deductible.

Should there be no government supervision of any sort? Definitely not! Sports, is too important to Nigeria to be left completely unsupervised by government. After all, it is only in sports that we have a chance of defeating the U.S.A in any lawful activity. This supervision must however not be unconstitutional and must not provide an opportunity for theft. It therefore is recommended that a National Council for Fitness and Sports be established that will be headed by the president or his vice and that heads of relevant ministries including education, health and possibly infrastructure be members.

The starting point for our sports and our football is to withdraw all government subsidies. If this is done, the kleptocrats will run for cover and leave the genuinely interested to utilise their energies and resources to start afresh. From thence, proper restructuring will commence.

Agu Imo Esq. is a Director of Sports and Entertainment Law Association Ltd/Gte and served on the Presidential Advisory Commission on the National Sports Commission in 2007/08.

Justine Henin has
ruled herself out of this year’s U.S. Open after discovering that an
elbow injury she suffered at Wimbledon was worse than initially thought.

The former world
number one, who is just six months into a comeback, fell heavily on her
right elbow during her fourth-round loss to fellow Belgian, Kim
Clijsters, and tests revealed the damage will force her to miss the
last grand slam of the year. “I took several medical examinations that
have revealed a partial ligament fracture of the right elbow,” she said
on her website on Thursday. “This injury will keep me away from the
courts for a rough period of two months, with the consequence that I
have withdrawn from the US Open (starting August 30).”

Henin said she would undergo more tests in about four weeks that
would determine when she might be able to return to the courts. The
injury is a setback for the seven-time grand slam winner, who stunned
the tennis world when she walked away from the game in 2008 when she
was still at the top and worked as an ambassador for UNICEF in central
Africa and south-east Asia. She returned to tennis earlier this year
made the final of the Australian Open, losing to world number one
Serena Williams, but has not yet added to her collection of grand slam
titles.

No club will be admitted for the upcoming season without registering a feeder team, the Nigeria Premier League has stated.

This decision,
which was reaffirmed in a statement signed by the Acting Executive
Secretary of the NPL, Tunji Babalola, pointed out that the compulsory
registration of a feeder team with ages ranging from 15 to 17 years
will be one of the pre-requisite requirements for registration by all
the clubs in the league. The move is geared towards promoting football
from the grassroots, and giving youngsters a platform to express their
talent.

Other requirements
by the NPL also include an authenticated management structure of the
club in line with article 1.9 of the rules and regulations; a written
guarantee from the club owner to respect officials/players contract,
welfare; provision of adequate medical facilities; and the provision of
TV friendly venue for matches, in addition to functional and well
ventilated dressing rooms for match officials and players. All the
clubs will also be required to guarantee adequate security during
matches. Babalola stated that sequel to the acceptance and adoption of
the chairman’s policy address by the Congress on 7th August, 2010 in
Ijebu-Ode, as a working document for the league, the aforementioned
requirements will be mandatory for the 2010/2011 registration exercise.

He said all requirements for registration shall be strictly enforced
during the exercise; and compromises and or excuses shall not be
accommodated. The Nigeria Premier League is scheduled to resume on
September 25 with Kaduna United and Kano Pillars playing the opening
game. Enyimba International are the defending champions of the league.

Chelsea manager,
Carlo Ancelotti, will remember vividly events of September 26, 2009 at
the JJB Stadium. Chelsea were cruising in the Premiership with six
straight victories but were brought crashing with a 3-1 defeat by
Wigan. Petr Cech was also sent off in that fixture. Chelsea got their
revenge in the best possible way – an 8-0 hammering to win the
Premiership and set a record for goals scored in a season – 103.

But all that pales
into insignificant history as the second match of the 2009/2010 season
for the Blues looms. Chelsea look for an encore to the 8-0 drubbing.
Wigan already have the ignominy of been beaten on the opening day by
newly-promoted Blackpool, who surprised everyone with a refreshing 4-0
away victory. Ancelotti, wary of Wigan’s Jekyll and Hyde character, is
demanding total concentration from his stars. “They didn’t start well
(against Wigan) last year but we have to learn to play against teams
with strong motivation,” he said. “Our aim is to show continuity away
from home. Although we did very well last season, away we had some
problems. We need to change the direction of this. Last season we won
the first six games – that was key to winning the title. We want the
same this season; and we have started very well. Now we need to look to
the next game.” New signing, Ramires, is expected to start his first
game for Chelsea; and Mikel Obi may have to make way for the Brazilian
in the first eleven.

Wigan Athletic
manager Roberto Martinez was left deflated with the first day heavy
defeat but he expects his team to be ready for Chelsea on Saturday.
“It’s not about the opposition, it is about ourselves,” he said. “We
have to focus on the level of performance and make sure we learn from
what happened today because it was clearly unacceptable the way we
approached the game. We have to bounce back; we’ll be ready for
Saturday.” He is however not sure of Charles N’Zogbia who was left out
of last weekend’s shock season-opening loss to Blackpool and it has
been claimed the 24-year-old, who has been linked with Birmingham and
Sunderland.

Nasri blow

Arsenal will be
without injured Frenchman, Samir Nasri, for the visit of Ian Holloway’s
motley crew who have already announced the Tangerine’s return with the
4-0 away win at Wigan. Blackpool are playing a second consecutive match
away because their ground is not yet ready for opponents. Nasri’s
injury is not the only blow that Arsenal have to deal with, as new
signing – Laurent Koscielny’s late red card means he will miss the
Blackpool match. Johan Djourou is recovering from injury and could make
the team. The other option is the hugely inexperienced Havard
Nordtveit, while Alex Song is the only other viable option. Song,
however, is short on fitness. If he is fit enough to play, he may have
to play in midfield.

Frenchman, Sebastien Squillaci, who is under Arsenal’s radar, will
not be in place at least for the visit of Blackpool. There are also
doubts over the fitness of Cesc Fabregas. He failed to make the squad
against Liverpool because of a stomach bug and lack of match fitness;
and a late fitness test will be done on the World Cup winner on
Saturday morning. Denilson is also on the treatment table, but Andrei
Arshavin is expected to have a greater influence on proceedings at the
Emirates Stadium as he was virtually non-existent at Anfield. Emmanuel
Frimpong, who could have filled the midfield void, has also been ruled
out for nine months after he tore his cruciate ligaments in a Reserve
match in Dublin. However Arsene Wenger has been known to pull rabbits
out of hats. Injuries are not a new thing to Wenger but they normally
occur in the middle to the end of the season, this term, he has to
start with it.

There seem to be
some natural phenomena most Nigerians are either intentionally
ignoring, or are absolutely ignorant of. Either way, the entire
country, unfortunately, is paying the price for this ignorance and will
keep on paying for a few more years, except the One who created sports
– especially football for His own pleasure, decides to have mercy on
this great nation.

One of these
natural phenomena is the fact that every human being will reap whatever
he or she has sown. You sow goodness, you reap goodness. You sow evil
and you can be sure you will reap evil. It is not possible for any
individual to sow millet and look forward to reaping rice. It has never
happened and I doubt very strongly if it will. Not only that, the
harvest is usually more than the seed sown. Plant a seed of corn and
check out the number of cobs that seed will yield from its stalk. This
is why evil sowers should know that the harvest will not be for them
only to consume- their children, grand children and even generations
after them will definitely partake in the abundant harvest. This
principle is not just natural, it is divine. That is the way God
Almighty has ordained it and no human being can change or circumvent it.

Do we have to
remind ourselves in this nation, that over the last couple of decades,
the seeds of corruption, violence, ineptitude, deception, cheating,
moral decadence, stealing, extravagant spending, abuse of power, cold
blooded murder, amongst several other horrible vices, have been planted
in Nigerian sports – especially football? Is there nobody with a
discerning spirit, who can tell fellow Nigerians the truth and nothing
but the entire truth? Must we continue to deceive ourselves that all is
well with sports, especially in Nigeria? For how long must we grope in
darkness? Do we have elders who are genuinely concerned with the state
of sports in Nigeria? Where are they, and what are they saying or
doing? When last did anything good come out of football in Nigeria? You
may not agree with my position and you are free not to, but I have a
very strong conviction; that we are now reaping some of the seeds
planted by evil doers and may have to continue harvesting for a while.
Except the Lord God Almighty rescues this nation from the grip of these
evil doers, any right thinking man or woman should not be deceived into
believing that sports will develop in Nigeria.

We are all
responsible for this. Everyone! We have all compromised one way or the
other. We have all done those things we ought not to have done, and did
not do what we ought to have done, and now sports (football especially)
is in a sorry state of anomie in this massively blessed nation. Right
now, what we experience is total abandonment of moral and social or
even spiritual values. Yet, we talk so much about praying for Nigerian
sports, we talk about God helping us. I wonder which God we are
referring to.

Neutralising Bio

Is it true that
there is already a curse on football in Nigeria as some people make us
believe? Is it true that there are some paid marabouts and prayer
mercenaries, given the mandate to ensure that Nigerian sports continue
to steadily head for the abyss? Can it be true that Bio is gradually
being neutralized and if extra care is not taken, late Ishaya Mark
Aku’s case will be a child’s play to what may befall him, if you get
the gist? The last time I heard of Bio was about three weeks ago, when
he was reported to be down with some very funny ailment. Unconfirmed
sources now claim that he has been flown out of the country for medical
treatment. Scary, is it not? Will Nigeria lose another sports minister
in such diabolical circumstances? Must some children become fatherless,
and a wife become a widow, simply because ‘the man may die’ who
determined to restructure sports in Nigeria? Must we allow this sort of
intimidation to continue in this country?

I called up a
couple of my media colleagues in order to verify some of the
unconfirmed reports about Bio and the response I got from majority of
them is alarming. A few claimed that Bio was absolutely on his own,
since he failed to “carry” sports writers along with him. A close
friend alleged that Bio almost “pour sand-sand into our garri” with his
uncompromising stance with FIFA and the NFF. Before I am branded as a
rabble-rouser, the other side of the coin may simply be that Bio has
tactically withdrawn to the trench from where he can fire from all
cylinders. After all, this is Naija, where anything, no matter how
absurd can happen.

The NFF selection

Call it election if
you are still one of those caught in the web of deception. Head or
tail, Amos Adamu is the winner; and his candidate, Tijani Yusuf, will
emerge as the next President of the NFF. But that will be the will of
man and not of God, because it is only God Almighty who decides who
will be in authority. Remember I have mentioned severally in this
column that God is the greatest sportsperson, and I am sure that if
only Nigerians will totally commit sports into His hands, He will
deliver us from the grip of enemies of Nigerian sports, parading
themselves, now, as friends. Either way, my own position concerning
FIFA’s interference with our football remains the same. Arise oh
compatriots and call the bluff of FIFA. We need the indefinite ban in
order to kill the evil seeds planted, sow seeds of righteousness that
will guarantee a bright future for sports especially football in
Nigeria. Enough is enough!

Former tennis bad
boy, John McEnroe, said Serena Williams got a raw deal on the
foot-fault call against her in the semi-final of last year’s U.S. Open
that triggered an ugly outburst and cost her the match.

With her opponent,
Kim Clijsters, on the brink of victory, Williams was called for a
foot-fault on a second serve to go match point down. “I don’t think the
person should have been calling the foot fault at that situation,”
McEnroe said during a conference call on Wednesday to promote his
broadcast booth partnership with brother Patrick McEnroe at this year’s
U.S. Open. Fired up by the judgment, Williams erupted in anger and
yelled at the lines woman who reported her for verbal abuse. Having
already received a warning for smashing a racket, Williams was handed
an automatic point penalty for a second violation which gave Clijsters
the match and paved the way for her victory in the final. McEnroe, who
had a reputation for arguing calls during his career, said he thought
it was a questionable judgment and that the official should have warned
Williams ahead of time.

Close call

“It was very close.
I wasn’t sure it was a foot fault,” said McEnroe, who insisted Williams
would not have gained a significant edge even if she had inched forward
on the serve. “At the very least that person in my opinion should have
said to Serena, if it was happening regularly … ‘hey, listen, the
next one I’m going to have to call.’ That’s my opinion.” McEnroe said
the reaction by Williams, who shook a ball in her clenched fist and
threatened “to shove it down” the throat of the lines woman, was an
aberration for the American. “I’ve never seen her lose it like that.
There’s no doubt that she lost it far worse than I’ve ever seen her
lose it. I dare to say even worse than I’ve ever lost it,” McEnroe
said. “I had to think back in the memory banks, and I think she
possibly could have even topped me there.”

The U-19 national
cricket team will leave Nigeria today for South Africa, and then on to
Namibia, where they will face Kenya, Botswana, Namibia, Sierra Leone,
Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia to compete for a qualification spot in the
ICC U19 Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2011.

The Nigerian team,
despite being the least ranked, is coached by Sean Philips, who is
doubly enthusiastic on the teams’ chances in Namibia. Philips said he
is sometimes “too excited to fall asleep,” most nights as he fantasises
about the team that went to Swaziland and blew away the opposition.
“These boys are great,” he said. “What we have been working on is
building back the team spirit, which is our greatest strength. I have
been telling them that they have to play for the team and after
Thursday’s training, I was very happy to see them leaving the pitch
together and not in groups – that means that the team is now a unit.”

Building with the help of the ICC

“The trip to South
Africa will help us bond more strongly as it did before we went to
Swaziland,” he continued. “The ICC has been very kind to us – by
letting us use their Benoni centre almost free of charge. The Nigeria
Cricket Foundation just has to provide feeding. Also, since South
Africa is the stop-over to Namibia, there is just a little extra that
we have to pay on the tickets.” Nigeria will be facing the strongest
teams on the continent with Kenya as the leading foe, but Philips is
optimistic that his team can upset the established order. “On their
day, these boys will hold their own against any other team in the world
and that is not an exaggeration,” he said. “They are good; and when
properly motivated, they are a match for any side. I just want them to
play their best. Their best is good enough for me; and I hope that we
will fulfil the expectations of Nigerians.”

The U-19 boys have been touted to be the beacon of hope for cricket
in the country; and Philips believes that: “Talking with people on the
ICC board, they know that Nigeria has the talent to become of the best
cricket nations in Africa. And as long as we continue going for this
tournaments and they see the will to improve, they are ready to come in
and help develop the talent and the infrastructure.” The team will stay
at the Benoni Cricket Centre till next Friday when they will depart for
Namibia. The ICC Africa U19 Cricket World Cup Qualifier (CWCQ) Division
will hold in Windhoek, Namibia from August 29- September 5, 2010.