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The forthcoming
elections into the board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), has
become a rallying point for former Nigerians players to unite for the
development of the game in the country.

Three former
captains of the Eagles, Christian Chukwu, Segun Odegbami and Austin
Okocha, as well as Mutiu Adepoju, currently General Manager of 3SC
Sports Club in Ibadan, have indicated their intentions to get on the
board of the football federation.

At a parley with
journalists at the Press Centre of the Teslim Balogun Stadium
yesterday, about 20 former Nigerian internationals came out in support
of their three colleagues, insisting the time had come for them to play
a prominent role in the administration of football in the country.

Some of the players
at the gathering were former Eagles goalkeepers, Peter Fregene and
Peter Rufai, former Eagles striker, Victor Ikpeba, former Enugu Rangers
star, Stanley Okoronkwo, former assistant coach of the Golden Eaglets,
Emman Tetteh, Tarila Okoronwanta, Tajudeen Disu, Edema Benson, Peter
Nieketen, Loveday Omoruyi, Nicholas Ukadike and Nicholas Obido.

Taking charge of destiny

Ikpeba, who read a
statement prepared by the footballers, said they are concerned with
developments in Nigerian football over several years now and could no
longer watch things deteriorate further. He said the time for change
had come and that he and his colleagues would spearhead it.

“The real change
will come only when the proper kind of leadership is provided for
Nigerian football administration. For too long, we, the players, have
watched as the game has gone down the slope of development in the hands
of those who do not fully understand its mechanics and may not have
deserved to run its activities in the first place,” he said.

He added that, as
the main actors in the theatre, the former internationals know that
Nigeria could have done better much and achieved more if the leadership
of the NFA had grown at the same pace with the growth of the players.

“We have watched
how administrators have turned part-time NFA board membership
assignments into full time jobs and their means of livelihood. We have
watched how administrators have fed fat on the success of players; how
the welfare of players has been only secondary to the needs of
officials; how, as soon as footballers leave the national teams, or
even their clubs, they are forgotten and neglected,” Ikpeba stated.

“Everyone knows that Nigerian football has come of age. So have the
footballers. Nigeria now has footballers that have seen it all and done
it all in football. There are retired Nigerian international football
players that have played in some of the best clubs in the world, played
under some of the best coaches in the world, and have been trained in
some of the best football institutions in the world. These players,
having retired from active football, now have all their technical
experiences to pass onto the next generation as payback to the
country.”

Kwara United’s
newly contracted Technical Adviser, Kadiri Ikhana, has stated he would
be going for victory against his former team, Enyimba International,
when both teams clash later today in the star fixture of the ongoing
Super 4 competition taking place at the Gateway International Stadium
in Ijebu-Ode.

Speaking with
NEXTSports after his team’s training session on Thursday in readiness
for today’s testy tie, the soccer tactician stated that only a victory
can boost the chances of his team in lifting the Super 4 trophy after
managing just a draw in their opening fixture with Kano Pillars on
Wednesday. “We were lucky to have finished our first game with a draw
but we have to move forward from there as we will be going for the
maximum points against Enyimba,” he said. “The match is very important
for us if we intend to emerge champions here.”

Ikhana, who is one
of the most widely travelled coaches in Nigeria with several titles to
his credit, also added that the several loopholes and mistakes noticed
in the opening fixture with Kano Pillars have been worked upon; and
pointed that his team will give a better performance against the
reigning Nigeria Premier League champions. The tactician, who was in
charge of the Aba Elephants when the team won its first Champions
League trophy in 2003, and was also voted the continent’s best
tactician for that year, still reckons Enyimba are a good team which
will definitely prove a hard nut to break. Kwara United’s hero on the
first day, goal keeper, Kazeem Yekeen, says he would be targeting
another clean sheet in the today’s game. Yekeen stood firm between the
posts to deny Pillars victory in the opening game and looks set to
repeat the feat.

Emordi confident

Meanwhile on his
own part, Okey Emordi, who is currently at the helm of affairs on the
Enyimba’s technical bench, though agreeing to the technical prowess of
Ikhana, who was his former boss at Enyimba, says he knows Ikahna too
well and knows the best approach to the match. “It is going to a highly
tactical game but I am sure my boys will up to the task once they
follow my instructions accordingly,” he postulated.

Enyimba are
currently on the top of the standings after getting the only victory in
the opening day of the tournament, another victory in today’s match
will put the team in good position to add the Super Four title to the
League crown already won while it will be hoping to also add the
Federation Cup later in the month. Enyimba were the victorious side in
the last game involving the two teams, as the Aba elephants defeated
Kwara 2-0 in Aba and played 0-0 in Ilorin in the just concluded league
season.

Other match

Meanwhile in the
other match of day, Sunshine Stars, who are currently on a tight rope
after losing 1-0 in its opening fixture, will be up against the
League’s runners up, Kano Pillars. Solomon Ogbeide, who is in charge of
the Akure-based team, says his boys already know the importance of the
game hence they would approach the game as such. Both Kano Pillars and
Sunshine were wasteful in front of goal as they created so many chances
in their respective games but both failed to score any. While a draw
can still guarantee Pillars a slight chance to remaining in contention
for the Super 4, any result outside of a victory will effectively knock
out the Sunshine team.

Both teams won their home games against each other in the just
concluded league season with Ijebu Ode now providing a neutral ground
to settle scores. All the teams have so far commended the high level of
officiating in the tourney and the appreciable number of people that
have thronged the stadium to cheer the teams, they are however
expecting that the situation to improve today.

With another round before clubs can access the lucrative UEFA Champions League,

European giants,
Ajax join 19 other clubs plotting their way to that money-spinning
stage. Ajax were competitors in the group stage in the 2005/2006
season, the last time they had a taste of the main draws.

Turkish entrants,
Fenerbahce were sensationally eliminated after a stunning 1-0 home
defeat by Young Boys and Celtic could not muster enough goals to
over-turn a 3-0 deficit to Portuguese first-timers, SC Braga.

Also, Russia’s
Zenit St Petersburg will be hoping for a kind draw as they qualified
narrowly against Romania’s Unirea Urziceni . Perennial participants in
the group stage, Dynamo Kiev will also be hoping to go through.

Ajax, Young Boys,
Braga, Dynamo and Zenit are all in the non-champions half of the draw
and will be joined in the next round by Tottenham Hotspur, Sampdoria,
Werder Bremen, Auxerre and Sevilla. The winners qualify for the group
stage.

UEFA has also
published the event list and accreditation details for the Monaco
football gala in August which will include the group stage draws and
UEFA Club Football Awards.

The Champions
League draws will hold on Thursday, August 26 by 6pm. The UEFA Europa
League group stage draw will hold on Friday, August 27 at 1 pm before
the Super Cup match between Inter Milan, European Cup winners and
Atletico Madrid,

winners of the inaugural Europa Cup, which will be decided at the Stade Louis II. The match will kick-off at 8:45pm.

The expected epic
meeting between the three fastest men in the world in the 100m: Usain
Bolt, world record holder, Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell will go ahead in
Stockholm but without Powell, who had to withdraw because of an injury.

The Jamaican
runner, who was the holder of the world record before his compatriot,
Bolt took over had to pull out of today’s race because of injuries, his
management company have said.

“On Wednesday
morning, Asafa tested himself with starts from blocks and was just
unable to push from the blocks without severe pain,” said a statement
on his management’s site (Doyle Management Group) – doylemanagement.com.

Reacting to the
issue of the injuries, Powell said: “I am absolutely devastated. I have
been running very well and I was hoping that I would be in the race
with a solid chance to win,” said Powell, the former 100 metres world
record holder. Powell has run the fastest time in 2010 with Bolt at
9.82 seconds.

The whole athletics
world had been looking forward to the race and there were expectations
that the world record (9.58 seconds) could be lowered. Bolt and Gay
will now be looked upon to give master performances to lower the time
set during the 2008 Olympic Games by Bolt.

The Paris injury

Powell said he may
have risked running in the race but there were no guarantees that he
would have been able to finish. “The way I have been feeling I know it
would be difficult to even finish the race.” Gay has run a personal
best of 9.69 seconds and has been quoted over his huge urge to be the
first athlete to beat Bolt. Last year Gay also struggled with a groin
injury but still equalled the second fastest time ever over 100 metres
with 9.69 seconds at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix and is now
confident he can challenge Bolt’s World Record of 9.58 seconds.

Gay told the BBC in
March, “It’s motivation for me. If he wasn’t on the scene, my mind-set
wouldn’t be to run 9.5 so I think he has helped the sport tremendously.
“That’s my goal (9.58) and I’m focusing on running pretty fast this
year.” Powell suffered a groin injury in Paris last month and since
then other niggling injuries have surfaced that have culminated in his
missing this epoch occasion. The problem, described as a tightness and
severe pain, prevented him from training for about 10 days after Paris.
Powell continued: “As the groin injury healed over the ensuing days, a
back and hamstring problem developed.” The pain has since eased but he
has been unable to train at maximum effort.

Bolt beat Powell to
win the 100m at the Diamond League event in Paris in a time of 9.84
seconds. But he had to recover from a poor start to outsprint Powell in
9.91s but he was not satisfied with his overall performance. “I didn’t
feel as powerful as I wanted to out of the blocks. I need to go home
and work on that.” If the homework is properly done, by the end of the
day, Bolt may have another moniker apart from “Lightening Bolt”.

The new Ligue 1
season gets underway tomorrow with four Super Eagles players, Taye
Taiwo, Lukman Haruna, Brown Ideye and Onyekachi Apam expected to
feature for their respective club sides and doing their best to make
Nigerians forget about the dismal outing of the national team at the
World Cup.

The Nigerians are
not alone in that regards as French football is also desperate to
change for the better its battered image following the national team’s
disastrous World Cup. The French failed to advance beyond the first
round in South Africa and it has been speculated in the French media
that the team’s poor outing could adversely affect attendance figures.
How far reaching this could be will be put to test as from tomorrow
when the season gets underway with nine matches on the cards including
one involving defending champions Marseille who are up against Caen.
Having waited as long as 18 years to get their hands on their first
major trophy since claiming the Champions League in 1993, Marseille
will not be keen to give it up easily, but Lyon, Bordeaux, Rennes and
Auxerre will be hoping to make the champions’ title defence a testing
one.

One trophy already in the bag

Just last weekend,
Marseille with Taiwo in action, added the French Champions Trophy to
their trophy cabinet after defeating French Cup winners Paris Saint
Germain courtesy of a penalty shootout following a dreary goalless draw
in front of 50,000 bored fans in Tunisia, to keep the momentum that
helped them end their lengthy trophy drought. But regardless of whether
they play better or not tomorrow against Caen, fans at the Stade
Velodrome will be expecting nothing but a convincing victory over the
yo-yo specialists who would be delighted to avoid relegation at the end
of the season.

Caen, who won the
Ligue 2 title last season, have a good mix of youth and experience, as
well as a shrewd, determined coach in Franck Dumas who was in charge
last time they competed in Ligue 1 two seasons ago. But they will need
more than that to emerge with a point from a Marseille side that still
looks the same from last season.

Lyon out to reclaim title

The big match of
the day will however come up at the Stade Municipal de Garland where
Olympique Lyon will be hosting Haruna’s Monaco.

Lyon, the most
powerful French club of the decade, have now gone two straight seasons
without a league title having won the last of their seven back-to-back
Ligue 1 titles in 2008 but Coach Claude Puel is determined to end that
barren run in the coming campaign beginning with a win over Monaco who
have a young but talented squad.

Elsewhere, Rennes, have suddenly become potential title contenders
after a busy summer that saw them, snapping Apam from Nice, Stephane
Dalmat from Sochaux, amongst other new signings, while hanging onto
Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan. They will be home to Lille, while Ideye’s Sochaux
will be home to newly promoted Avignon.

The Falconets exceeded all expectations by becoming the first
African female football side to reach a World Cup final.

These are encouraging times indeed for female football. Not
generally watched as their male counterparts, their showing at the U-20 World
Cup will go a long way in showing an unappreciative] audience that a lot can be
achieved in women’s football in Nigeria. It’s great that the superlatives are
flying from the heights of government to praise the Falconets but these should
be with a few provisos.

Please do not submit a supplementary budget in order to host
them at Aso Rock for a few days. Kindly do not promise them choice parcels of
land, the Cs of O of which they might not see in this lifetime. Should there be
a need to bestow these high-achieving youngsters with national honours, it
would be worth remembering that they also need more support and encouragement
from government in terms of improving facilities and player welfare. These will
have more far-reaching effects.

Premier league almost
upon us

With only nine days to go until the start of the English Premier
League season, it’s time again to briefly look at the 20 teams plying their
trade in the top flight. It’s been a relatively quiet transfer period if that
adjective can apply to Manchester City’s £50m spree (and counting.) Could this
be the year of rearrangement at the top of the table? The 2010/11 season sees
the first implementation of the home-grown rule. All told, there will be little
effect on most clubs. The biggest effect might be that the ‘moneybags’ clubs
cannot simply purchase a whole senior squad from abroad, the English FA is
hoping that this will benefit England’s national sides in the long term.

Newcastle United, Blackpool, and West Bromwich Albion are welcomed
to the premiership. Of these, the Magpies look the most likely to remain in the
top flight. WBA are no strangers to the yo-yo effect and not many are expecting
anything different this season. The middlemen will continue to be just so,
perhaps moving up or down a couple of positions but these guys are pretty much
entrenched here.

Avram Grant and Mark Hughes are expected to make a difference in
their new positions and this could be a factor among the middlemen. The ‘Big
Four,’ I believe will essentially remain just that – minor blips that saw
Liverpool move down in the table are rare. Bursting with talent, there were a
few things that contributed to their meltdown: No adequate replacement for
Alonso, injured Aquilani and Torres and underperforming Gerrard. With Benitez
replaced by Roy Hodgson, both Torres and Gerrard thus far still in the squad
and Joe Cole joining from Chelsea, we look forward to a game plan that will
ensure a turnaround.

“This is Arsenal’s year, the young guns will come good etc.”
Well, we’ve heard that before. New signing, Marouane Chamakh, is exciting the
North Londoners but they still need a better goalkeeper and some cover in
central defence. If the Emirates Cup game against Celtic is anything to go by,
more work is needed all round. A fully fit Van Persie and a committed Fabregas
will be crucial to the Gunners’ title challenge.

A few Chelsea players have been released but as always, they
remain strong title contenders and Ancelotti, a sound and tactical manager.

As for Manchester United, Sir Alex has gone shopping in Mexico to bring in
Javier Hernandez. Smalling is another acquisition. If there’s anything they
know well, it’s to take nothing for granted. Favourites to regain the title,
there are more than a few clubs now to open up the competition, which will all
make for another intriguing season.