Nigeria Content Online

The
final for the Covenant Football League ended on Monday with Peter
Pioneers emerging winners by beating Rock FC by a lone goal.

The match tagged
the ‘Final Showdown’ saw the favourites, Rock FC, coming up short
behind the eventual winners. A converted free kick in the seventh
minute put the Pioneers ahead and that made the difference in the match.

Rock tried every trick in the book to overcome the Pioneers but found their opponents’ defence to hard to breach.

In the second half,
tension arose as both teams tried to get on the score sheet. In the
75th, a scuffle saw Rock FC’s Akinyinka Oludele sent off for being rude
to the referee after he had been handed a second yellow card.

In the third-place match, House of Judah beat Zion FC by a lone goal.

David Mohammed, a
representative of Covenant Christian Centre, organisers of the league,
was happy that the final turned out successful:

“We started the league March 19 and I am happy that it has ended up like this,” he said.

The first, second and third place winners were all handed medals.
The highest goal scorer, Adeyemo Adetunji of Rock FC with eight goals
to his kitty was given a trophy while the golden glove was won by Idowu
Bakare of Peter Pioneers who did not concede a goal throughout the
tournament.

Nigerian
defender, Taye Taiwo will be leaving Olympique Marseille and the French
Championnat for the Italian Serie A after reaching an agreement with AC
Milan.

According to a
report in French newspaper L’Equipe, the Nigerian international has put
pen to paper on a three-year deal with the Rossoneri – seven-time
winners of Europe’s biggest club competition, the Champions League.

The contract of the
highly-rated Nigerian defender, who has been at Marseille since January
2005, runs out in June, but he has been linked with several major
European clubs since the start of the year.

However, the former
Lobi Stars of Makurdi ace last month revealed that he has set his
sights on a move to the Italian top flight division, and has now
reportedly reached an agreement with the San Siro club on a three-year
deal.

“I’m very pleased that Milan have shown an interest in signing me.

Milan are my first
option when I leave Marseille this summer,” said the 25- year-old last
month in an interview with Canal Football Club.

Nevertheless, there has not been any official statement confirming the deal from Taiwo’s camp.

There has also not been any statement from Marseille or Milan who are still in the race for their respective national titles.

Marseille, who only
last weekend clinched the French League Cup at the expense of
Montpellier, with Taiwo grabbing the match-winning goal towards the end
of the game, are second on the Ligue 1 table, while Milan are close to
wrapping up their first Serie A title in over half a decade.

Defensive worries

But the management
of the Rossoneri has never hidden their desire to bring a fresh
left-back to the San Siro following the disappointing performances of
the duo of Marek Jankulovski and Luca Antonini this season.

So unacceptable has
their performances been this term, that Milan’s coach, Massimo Allegri,
has had to call upon the services of the elderly Gianluca Zambrotta a
number of times to fill the role.

Urby Emmanuelson,
who arrived in the January transfer window, has also played in the
left-back position but is more comfortable playing as a winger.

So Milan will be
hoping that Taiwo will be the answer to their defensive worries,
although no official statement to that effect is expected until the end
of the season.

However, on
Wednesday, Marseille will resume their quest to reclaim top spot on the
Ligue 1 table with a game against Nice, with Taiwo expected to be
involved in the game even as he looks set to be suspended by the French
league body following his post-match utterances at the end of last
weekend’s game.

The defender
targeted unsporting remarks at fans of rivals PSG, a club based in
Paris, venue of last Saturday’s game against Montpellier.

A suspension could however be placed upon Taiwo before this weekend’s league match against Auxerre.

An
Indian court on Tuesday ordered that the former chief organiser of the
Delhi Commonwealth Games (CWG) be kept in police custody. This followed
on the heels of a crackdown on businesses and government officials in a
string of corruption cases to hit the emerging global giant.

Federal police
Monday arrested Suresh Kalmadi, a senior lawmaker who has been
suspended from the ruling Congress party, charged with cheating in
tenders for timing equipment worth millions of dollars in the October
sporting event. Police will hold him for eight days from Tuesday.

The case is one of
several high-profile corruption scandals to strain the Congress
party-led government and spark protests in the Indian capital against
what is seen as a culture of near impunity for the country’s elite.

In a separate case,
a court deferred a decision on whether to grant bail to five executives
charged with manipulating the sale of telecoms licences in collusion
with senior officials in the ruling coalition.

New Delhi may have
been deprived up to $39 billion in lost revenue due to the flawed
awarding of second-generation mobile telecoms licences, a state auditor
has said.

Mr Kalmadi, who has
become a pantomime villain in the Indian media, had a sandal thrown at
him as he made his way to a court Tuesday. He has denied any wrongdoing
and his lawyer called the arrest “illegal.” “The accused person entered
into a criminal conspiracy to cheat the government of India in the
matter of awarding contracts for timings, scoring and results system to
be acquired for the CWG, Delhi 2010,” V.K. Sharma, a federal police
lawyer for the prosecution, told the court Tuesday.

The $6 billion
event was billed as India’s answer to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but
descended into rows over leaking stadiums, filthy athletes’ rooms and
corruption scandals.

Mr Kalmadi’s aides
formed a tight phalanx around the lawmaker from the western city of
Pune as he walked out of the court and the judge sat down to write the
order. A female aide shouted to him: “God is with us.” Rows of police
armed with batons roped a path for Mr Kalmadi to come in and out of the
courtroom.

Months of
relentless headlines about corruption scandals and a vocal political
opposition have roiled the government, rattled investors and put the
brakes on ambitious economic reforms in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s
second term.

The Congress party
suspended Suresh Kalmadi Monday after he was charged with favouring a
Swiss firm to provide 1.4 billion rupees ($31.6 million) worth of
timing equipment to the Games.

Mr Kalmadi, who was
booed at the Games’ opening ceremony in front of a global TV audience
in October, had his constituency office in Pune vandalised by a gang of
angry youths Monday night.

On Tuesday, onlookers shouted a mix of support and abuse as Mr Kalmadi emerged from the court.

Telecoms case

In an adjacent
courtroom, former telecoms minister, Andimuthu Raja, was seen slumped
over a table as a case over the sale of telecoms licences and spectrum
continued Tuesday.

Mr Raja, along with
executives from telecoms firms and the daughter of the leader of a
regional party that is a key government ally, have been charged in the
telecoms licence case.

In another
courtroom, a Delhi high court judge deferred a hearing on the bail
applications of senior officials from Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani
(ADA) Group and the Indian joint ventures of Norway’s Telenor and the
UAE’s Etisalat until Friday at the earliest.

Their bail plea was
rejected by a lower court last week after federal police said the
executives could abscond or try to influence witnesses. They will be
held in jail pending the trial or until they are granted bail. All
those on trial in the telecoms case deny wrongdoing.

Federal police
Monday added more names to their charge sheet in the telecoms case,
including the lawmaker daughter of the chief minister of Tamil Nadu
state. She was accused of taking bribes routed via a TV channel owned
by her family.

The case could
potentially threaten Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s ruling coalition
and provoke a popular backlash in ongoing state elections, including in
Tamil Nadu, where Congress is allied to the ruling Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam (DMK) party.

The DMK threatened
to pull ministers from the coalition if members of the chief minister’s
family were charged, according to media reports.

The DMK will meet
in the state capital, Chennai, on Wednesday to discuss their coalition
with the Congress party, a spokesman for the party told the NDTV news
channel.

The DMK had also
threatened to withdraw from the government in March in a row over
seat-sharing arrangements in the Tamil Nadu election, for which results
are out on May 13.

However, analysts question whether the DMK would act on such a
threat, given that it needs Congress’s clout in the state as much as
Congress needs the DMK’s 18 seats to maintain its federal majority.
Congress could also look to other smaller parties to prop up its
coalition.

World number one, Lee Westwood is growing increasingly weary with being asked about his failure to win a first major title and told reporters in Seoul on Tuesday, that the question was getting on his nerves.

The Briton, speaking to reporters in Seoul ahead of the $2.8m Ballantines Championship, said becoming world number one and winning a major were separate issues and that his only focus was to keep playing good golf.

“The amount of times I have to answer it gets on my nerves,” Westwood said. “This might be the very last time I could be answering this question. It could be no comment after this.

“The world rankings and major championships are two completely separate things,” added Westwood, who celebrated his 38th birthday by winning the Indonesian Masters in Jakarta at the weekend.

That victory, combined with fellow Englishman Luke Donald’s failure to win The Heritage, moved him back above Germany’s Martin Kaymer into top spot.

“I haven’t won a major yet but hope to do so soon. I’ve had a lot of good chances to win majors but it just hasn’t happened.

“But the world rankings are all about consistency and playing well week-in and week-out, which I tend to do. The secret to being world number one is having the consistency, and all parts of your game have to be good to do that.”

Greater pressure

Westwood, who was world number one for 17 weeks after deposing Tiger Woods in November, acknowledged the pressure was greater having reached the summit of men’s golf.

“Obviously with being number one there is a lot more responsibility,” he said. “You have a lot more things to do, media commitments and things like that.

“People want a lot more of your time, it becomes a bit difficult to cram everything in and leave time for practicing golf and doing what got to you where you are. That’s the toughest part of it.”

Three-times major champion, Ernie Els and local favourite Yang Yong-eun, the first Asian man to win a major at the 2009 PGA Championship, are set to push Westwood this week at the Ballantines, which is co-sanctioned by the Asian, European and Korean Tours.

Teenage Korean sensation, Noh Seung-yul, the reigning Asian Tour Order of Merit champion, and European Ryder Cup players Ian Poulter and Miguel Angel Jimenez are also among a quality field at the Blackstone Golf Club near Seoul.

“My confidence is high,” said Westwood. “I didn’t realise the world number one had never competed in Korea before so it’s a bit of an honour.”

Nigeria’s
U-20 team, the Flying Eagles may be pitched against strong sides like
Brazil and Argentina, when the draws for this year’s FIFA Under-20
World Cup takes place in Cartegena, Colombia, on Wednesday (2am
Thursday, Nigerian time).

The Flying Eagles
and other African qualifiers; Cameroun, Egypt and Mali are some of the
teams in Pot C for the draws. The other countries in the same pot are
Uruguay, Croatia and Ecuador.

However, the
tournament’s most successful country Argentina are in Pot A along with
hosts Colombia, Brazil, Spain, England and France, which inevitably
means the Flying Eagles will be grouped along with any of these six
teams.

At the Netherlands
2005 edition of the tournament, Nigeria was in Group F with Brazil with
both teams playing out a 0-0 draw in the group’s opening match.

The Samson Siasia-led team went on to reach the finals of the tournament losing 2-1 to Argentina.

No big deal

For Garba Lawal, a
former Super Eagles player and member of the Nigeria Football
Federation (NFF) technical committee, being grouped along any of the
teams should not cause any stir.

“Once you qualify
for a tournament, you are expected to play with any of the other teams
that make it to the championship so whether it is Brazil or Argentina,
it makes no difference to me” he said.

Lawal, who was the
team manager for the 2009 U-17 team, whose players form the bedrock of
the present Flying Eagles team, said he would even prefer to play
tougher oppositions in the group stages.

“While I will say
that there are actually no minnows in football again, I will actually
prefer playing the so called tougher teams in the group’s stage; they
give you a better assessment of your team” he said.

Getting the ticket

Nigeria beat Gambia
2-0 on Sunday at the ongoing African Youth Championship (AYC) to
complete the African quartet heading to the FIFA U-20 World Cup.
Nigeria, with five AYC titles joined Cameroun, Mali and Egypt as the
continent’s contingent to Colombia 2011.

Defending FIFA U-20
World Cup champions Ghana, were eliminated along with the Gambians.
Ghana, who drew with Cameroon 1-1 on Sunday, became the first African
team to lift the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2009 when they beat Brazil in
the final.

Nigeria had
previously been the most successful youth team from the continent,
having lost in the final match at both the 1989 and the 2005 editions.
They will look to match those accomplishments in Colombia, which will
host the FIFA U-20 World Cup in eight cities from July 29 to August 20.

Augustine
Eguavoen, coach of Nigeria’s national under-23 team, has called up
three additional overseas-based players for this weekend’s 2011
All-Africa Games qualifier against Liberia. Already, the former Super
Eagles skipper and coach can bank on the services of seven
overseas-based players for the match which comes up on Saturday at
Benin City’s Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium.

But having earlier
played out a 1-1 draw in the first leg tie decided penultimate Saturday
in Monrovia, Eguavoen is leaving no stone unturned in his bid to ensure
that Nigeria advances to the next round of the qualifiers by calling up
three more overseas-based players. They are led by former Bendel
Insurance and Kano Pillars midfielder, Solomon Okpako, who now plays
for Greek Super League side, Panionios, and who was in the Super Eagles
‘B’ side that won last year’s WAFU Cup tournament in Nigeria.

Also called up is
former Nigeria under-20 international forward, Kehinde Fatai, who plays
club football with Romanian top Liga 1 outfit, Astra Ploiesti, as well
as Hapoel Acre of Israel defender Fidelis Dimaku.

They will join the
likes of goalkeeper Dele Ajiboye, and also Nurudeen Orelesi, Edet Ibok,
Nosa Igiebor, Ganiyu Oseni and Nnamdi Oduamadi, who had earlier been
called up for Saturday’s game.

According to the
media officer of the Nigerian team, Arafat Aliu, the players are
expected to hit the team’s camp by Wednesday, April 27. Mr Aliu also
disclosed that the team would observe a training-free day today because
of the gubernatorial and state house of assembly elections holding
nationwide.

A captain’s optimism

Meanwhile, the
captain of the Nigerian U-23 team, Kingsley Udoh, is confident of
victory over the Liberians on Saturday. The Nigerian team had a tough
time in the Liberian capital during the first leg encounter with some
of the players losing valuables, while the likes of Ajiboye and Rabiu
Ibrahim sustained injuries.

“We went through a
horrible time in Monrovia but we picked a point,” Udoh said. “Now that
we are home, we want revenge and that we shall get on the field of play
on Saturday.” The Heartland of Owerri defender also assured that the
Nigerian team would win Saturday’s tie in memory of late Nigerian
defender Olubayo Adefemi, who passed on recently in Greece.

“If for nothing, we will be playing for our fallen colleague, Olubayo Adefemi. And we are going to win for him,” he added.

If West Bromwich
Albion plan on remaining in the English Premier League come the end of
next season, then it is imperative that they retain the services of
Nigerian forward Osaze Odemwingie.

This was the
opinion posited by the club’s manager, Roy Hodgson, who warned that
selling the Nigerian international could have disastrous consequences
for the Baggies who, following last weekend’s 2-2 draw at Tottenham,
are now six points above the drop zone.

Odemwingie opened
scoring for the Baggies in that draw against Tottenham to take his
goals tally to 13 in the Premier League and further draw the attention
of a host of European clubs eager to lure him away from the Hawthorns.

Juventus are
reportedly in the forefront for the Nigerian’s signature and will look
to make an official bid once the transfer window reopens on July 1.

Hodgson however has
no intention of parting with the Nigerian and is banking on the club’s
board to help him keep the former Lokomotiv Moscow star.

The former
Liverpool and Fulham manager also knows it is important for a club of
West Brom’s stature to retain their best players if they plan on
remaining in the English top flight.

“It would be nice if Juventus told us (they were interested) rather than us having to hear it from the media,” Hodgson said.

“But it’s a
no-brainer really, isn’t it? If you’re going to have a spell of years –
even if it’s only two – in the Premier League then you’ve got to
improve your team.” To do that, however, Hodgson feels he needs to
bring in a number of new players ahead of next season’s campaign.

He added: “We are
running on a reasonably small squad of players. We are asking an awful
lot of inexperienced players who are getting better all the time.

“But if we want to
have a good Premier League campaign next season, it is very important
we sign several players in the summer that will really help us.

“It will also take
some of the burden away from the Youssuf Mulumbus and Peter Odemwingies
who, you must remember, are in their first season in the Premier
League.”

Backing the boss

Hodgson isn’t alone
in his assessment of the club’s situation as he has the backing of
Simon Cox who has called on the club’s chairman, Jeremy Peace, to do
everything in his power to retain the Nigerian.

Although Cox, who
grabbed West Brom’s second goal at White Hart Lane, admitted that West
Brom might face a fight to keep Odemwingie, he is confident the club’s
chairman will fight off any attempt to take him away from the club.

“We want him to do
as well for us as he can for as long as he is here,” said Cox. “He has
been an absolute revelation for us this year.

He added: “If he keeps doing this inevitably the big boys will come sniffing for him but our chairman is no mug.

“He will try to keep him for as long as he can and it’s going to have to be a hefty price tag to tear him away.”

A
possible shift in the balance of power towards Real Madrid and away
from Barcelona was reflected on Monday in the views of two of the
clubs’ most famous former players.

Real’s 1-1 draw
against Barca in La Liga 10 days ago and their 1-0 win in the King’s
Cup final suggested Jose Mourinho has learned from his team’s crushing
5-0 defeat at the Nou Camp this season and found a way to contain their
arch-rivals.

Real’s first trophy
in three years has eased the pressure on their Portuguese coach, with
two days to go until the clubs meet for a third time in Champions
League semi-final first leg at the Bernabeu.

“Madrid are in a
fabulous moment,” honorary Real president Alfredo Di Stefano wrote in
sports daily, Marca, his rant against the side’s counter-attacking
style from the first ‘clasico’ seemingly long forgotten.

The nine-times
European champions shrugged off any tiredness from the Cup final to
rout third-placed Valencia 6-3 away in the league on Saturday, but Di
Stefano warned against complacency.

“We have to continue in the same vein and not rest on our laurels, and to fight on as if we still hadn’t won anything,” he said.

“Inspiration alone isn’t enough to create unforgettable art. It requires a great quantity of fight and tenacity.”

Third title

Barca maintained
their eight-point lead at the top of La Liga with a 2-0 win over lowly
Osasuna on Saturday, and with five games left look to have a third
consecutive title in the bag.

In contrast to
Real, however, Barca laboured to their victory and coach Pep Guardiola
appeared to be on the defensive before and after the match when
speaking to the media, saying Real were now the favourites in the
Champions League.

“No one passes from
being favourite to the weaker side in 10 days,” former Barca forward
Johann Cruyff wrote in daily El Periodico.

“The draw in La
Liga delivered the title and Barca lost the Cup by the narrowest of
margins. Ah! It’s because Barca did not shine! If this is the true
measure of Barcelona, there is a problem.” The Dutchman went on to give
Guardiola a rap on the knuckles for the 40-year-old’s change from his
usual placid approach to make sniping comments about the refereeing in
the first two ‘clasicos’ among other complaints.

The Madrid-based media have jumped on these complaints to portray Guardiola as struggling with the pressure, and a bad loser.

“Barca must do what
they have done thousands of times before and forget about getting drawn
into a war of words or scuffles,” Cruyff said.

“Instead of worrying about who will referee, if the grass (at the
Bernabeu) is long, they should think more about getting behind their
rivals and into goal-scoring positions.”

It was Easter morning. I took my car to a car wash in Lagos mainland.

As I waited to be
attended to, I spied a young lad appear. He looked to be within the 14-
to 16-year-old bracket. He was from a building adjacent to where I was.
He hurriedly walked past. I noticed he was wearing a branded football
kit with the name Eto’o written conspicuously on the back. In his hand
was a pair of tattered running shoes.

There was no doubt
that the only thing on Shehu’s mind was getting to his destination: to
enjoy an Easter morning football outing with his friends.

As I watched him
hurry past and turn the corner, it suddenly occurred to me what
potential must lay buried within a young man like him. He could be one
of a millions gemstones, deep in the bowels of God-given mines, spread
across this nation waiting to be explored.

Alas! Here they
are, in my fatherland, wasting away ‑ a travesty of unimaginable
magnitude. For so many reasons. One is the non-existence of enough
well-equipped and trained age-grade football coaches, trainers and
administrators to, in a methodological manner, carry out this
assignment. It would have to line-upon-line, precept-upon-precept, I
reasoned.

Our great nation
also lacks sports journalists skilful in the art and science of writing
on issues concerning functional age-grade or grassroots football
development. This is one reason why there is no sensible sports
development pyramid structure, as far as I am concerned, in any of
Nigeria’s 36 states today.

Eventually, Shehu
appeared from the same street he had disappeared into minutes ago. This
time, there was frustration written visibly all over him. I knew
something was wrong and immediately decided to intervene.

“No football this morning?” I asked.

“No.”

“Why?”

“They did party where we play. There are broken bottles on the ground.”

“You like playing football?”

Shehu looked at me closely before replying. “Yes.”

“Which position do you play?”

“Forward.”

“Forward? Which is one is called forward?”

“Number 7.”

As we carried on
with our conversation, I moved over to my car and opened the boot.
Inside, I had a couple of training balls. There were at least four
various sizes. It was Shehu’s turn to question me as I picked and
started pumping one with my hand-held double action pump. I knew it was
fascinating to him.

“I like your pump. Are you a coach?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Where is your academy?”

He was disappointed to realise it: I wasn’t staying close to him. “So, how can I join your academy?”

Instead of
answering his question, I threw the ball on the ground, an action we
use in the Brazilian Soccer Schools to test how skilful footballers are
generally. I watched his reaction. He picked the ball up with his hand.
By this time, two other boys had joined us. I asked him if he realised
he could become a greater player than some of the popular European and
South American footballers. He answered in the affirmative but rather
impatiently. Me and my two friends here want to do some knock-about. So
enough of this conversation, Mr Coach!

Shehu dropped the
ball to his feet. He tried kicking it up, only for it to roll away from
him. One of the boys ran after the ball. He caught up with it and did a
‘step over’ move with it before passing it to Shehu, who received it
with his foot. Again, he picked the ball up with his hands. At this
point it was abundantly clear that he had not been taught the basic
rudiments of ball juggling.

I spent about 30
minutes teaching him and the other boys some very simple ball juggling
techniques. While this was going on, Shehu’s mother came around and
gave him some instructions. I exchanged some pleasantries with her and
then appealed to her to buy a Size 4 ball for my friend. She promised
to do so. I believe her.

Eventually, the sad
moment came for me to go. I promised to see Shehu again very soon. He
asked for my telephone number. I gave him my card. I would receive a
call from him only one hour after our meeting.

As I drove off, I felt very fulfilled but wondered how many Nigerian
children needed to be exposed to the type of experience Shehu and the
two boys just had with me. Then I remembered the meeting I had with
Koye Sowemimo of Polygon Sports, in London, on the need for us to, as a
matter of utmost urgency, introduce the Coerver® Coaching system to
millions of our young ones at the grassroots level. To millions of such
in this country, I promise to spend and be spent for you all ‑ in order
to save Nigerian football from further decline. So help me, God.