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The furore over
refereeing mistakes at the World Cup forced FIFA president Sepp Blatter
into an about-turn on Tuesday, reopening the debate on the use of
goalline technology.

The 74-year-old
Swiss president of world soccer’s governing body, who apologised on
Tuesday for the errors made by referees this week, has been a stubborn
opponent of technology for years.

He effectively
closed the door on further discussions about it three months ago at the
annual meeting of soccer’s law-making body, the International Football
Association Board (IFAB).

Although he has
again ruled out using video replays to help officials with decisions,
such as offsides, he said technology such as the Hawk-Eye system used
in tennis and cricket should be re-examined to determine if the ball
had crossed the line or not for a goal.

“It is obvious that
after the experiences so far at this World Cup, it would be a nonsense
not to reopen the file on goalline technology,” Blatter said at a
briefing with selected media on Tuesday.

He was referring
specifically to the incident in Sunday’s England-Germany match at
Bloemfontein when a shot from England midfielder Frank Lampard struck
the bar and bounced down well over the line when England, chasing a
comeback, were 2-1 down.

The goal was not given and Germany went on to win the second round match 4-1.

Although there was
a second controversial incident later in the day when Argentina scored
from an offside position against Mexico in a match they won 3-1,
Blatter emphasised no technology would be debated relating to video
evidence for offsides.

He said: “We will
look again at technology, goalline technology, at the business meeting
of the International Football Association Board in Cardiff, Wales, in
July.

“The only principle
we are going to bring back for discussion is goalline technology. For
situations like the Mexico game you don’t need technology.”

Open mind

Paul Hawkins, whose
Hawk-Eye Innovations company of Winchester, England, developed the
system, was keeping an open mind about Blatter’s comments.

Hawkins told
Reuters: “Mr Blatter has said this before and there have been other
changes of mind. All he said is that they will reopen the discussion,
they haven’t said they will change their minds.

“If they’re serious
about this then they’ll contact us and we’ll just wait to find out
whether this is just a little statement to defuse the current public
pressure.

“I have had my hopes dashed too many times in the past to get too
excited, but obviously we think we can help make football a better
game.” Only hours after Blatter spoke, World Cup referees said they
would welcome technology if it made their jobs easier and helped the
decision-making process.

Argentina
goalkeeper, Sergio Romero, is likely to see more action in Saturday’s
quarter-final with Germany than he has in their World Cup matches so
far. Romero, who has conceded two goals in four wins, faces one of the
higher scoring attacks at the finals when they meet in a mouth-watering
clash in Cape Town. The giant 23-year-old knows he must also be
prepared for a penalty shootout which is how Germany eliminated
Argentina in Berlin at the same stage of the 2006 finals.

“We have been
studying the penalties of all players since the World Cup started
because we know that at any moment we might have to face one and you
need to know about the taker,” the 1.92-metre tall Romero said on
Tuesday. In the 2006 quarter-final shootout, Germany goalkeeper Jens
Lehmann benefitted from a crib sheet he had on him with details of
Argentina’s likely penalty takers. Germany won it 4-2. “It was a piece
of cunning by them for the goalkeeper to have a little paper tucked
away to know about the players who were going to shoot,” Romero told a
news conference. “I think that with the work we’re doing we’re ready
for any time in the match, during the 90 minutes or in penalties,” he
said after Monday’s practice at Argentina’s University of Pretoria base.

The threat

Romero said
Germany, who have scored nine goals to Argentina’s 10 in four matches,
have “great forwards and great fighters when they don’t have the ball.
“(Lukas) Podolski has a great shot from distance, he always sets up his
left foot to shoot, (Miroslav) Klose chases every ball, he doesn’t give
any up for lost, (Mesut) Ozil plays very well, he’s technical, they
have tall people who go to all the corners and free kicks.” Romero
believes he is playing behind a very strong defence but he needed left
back Gabriel Heinze’s two clearances off the line to avoid conceding
more goals against the Mexicans in their 3-1 win on Sunday.

“Only two or three balls reach me per match, not more than that, and
I think that means I have a good defence,” said the keeper with the
long ponytail who has won the World Youth Cup and Olympic soccer titles
with Argentina. Romero has been criticised for punching the ball away
at times rather than trying to catch it. “In a match you can’t run any
risks,” he said. “If you have to parry, you parry it, if you have to
catch it you catch it and I think that’s how a goalkeeper gives his
team mates confidence.”

Ghana striker Asamoah Gyan suffered an
ankle injury in training on Monday and sat out most of a rigorous
two-hour session as Africa’s last hopes prepared for Friday’s World Cup
quarter-final.

“I felt a knock and it’s a bit swollen,
but I don’t think it’s too serious. By Friday I’ll be ready,” he told
reporters after a lengthy training session at Mogwase, near the team’s
Sun City base. Ghana play Uruguay on Friday at the Soccer City Stadium
in Johannesburg. Gyan sat with ice wrapped around his ankle and hobbled
away after the practice but was adamant he would be in the starting
line-up against Uruguay.

More injuries

Missing from the
session were captain, John Mensah; midfielder, Kevin-Prince Boateng;
and winger, Dede Ayew, who all picked up knocks in the weekend’s second
round win over the United States. Boateng has a hamstring injury, and
is doubtful for Friday; and Mensah suffers from persistent back
problems. Ayew is resting an ankle knock plus is suspended for the
upcoming clash. But central defender Isaac Vorsah, who has missed the
last two matches for the Black Stars at the tournament in South Africa,
participated throughout the training in the crisp night air at the
small rural stadium.

Gyan, who has scored three of Ghana’s four goals at the finals, said
reaching the last eight was a massive achievement for the Black Stars.
“We are so happy to have qualified, it was so important for Ghana and
the whole of Africa. We qualified for second round four years ago and
this time we’ve made it to the quarters.” It was Gyan’s spectacular
extra-time volley that proved the winner in the 2-1 victory over the
Americans at Rustenburg on Saturday. “The goal was one of the best of
my career. I was pushed from behind and I should have fallen down (to
claim a penalty) but I resisted and I made it happen.” Thoughts of
targeting the tournament’s top scorer award, however, were not on his
mind, he told Reuters. “I’m only thinking about helping my team to win.
The prize is not important; remember football is a collective game.” </

This column is
seriously tempted to join others in reacting to the shameful exit of
this great nation from the on-going FIFA 2010 World cup tournament, in
South Africa. I have received numerous text messages and phone calls,
asking why I have adopted the “silence” attitude to such an important
issue, affecting not only the psyche, but lives of several football
loving Nigerians.

My reasons are many
and very simple. One of them is that I have never been interested in
this particular edition of the FIFA World Cup tournament, for so many
mysterious reasons, unlike my participation in the France ‘98,
Korea/Japan in 2002 and Germany 2006. It seems very odd, but that is
the truth and I will explain in subsequent editions of this column.
Another reason has to do with FIFA and the issue of government’s
“interference.” Interference is a word which I think has been so glibly
used and I suspect abused, by the football fraternity called FIFA, not
the national federations. Hence, there are lots of very interesting
questions we are collating for FIFA to answer.

Now, to the
business of the day. I stated in last week’s column that there is the
urgent need for the Lagos State government to effect fundamental
structural changes designed to ensure genuine grass roots sports
development in this state. I also counselled that the time for such
changes – no matter how painful they may seem, is NOW. There is no
pyramid in this state with a football club, to which thousands of our
God-given young ones can aspire to be part of later in life. None. And
the reasons given by sports officials are, to say the least, absolutely
unacceptable and unprofessional.

Like many other
young boys, I grew up dreaming of playing for teams like Stationery
Stores, E.C.N., Ports Authority, Police (Machine) team, and the great
Railways football team, amongst several others, founded and based in
Lagos. I make bold to state that there is no football club in this
state today, with all the required paraphernalia like a club-house (not
a semi brothel, please), formation of other sports teams like basket
ball, tennis, etc, as part of the club; and a functional, credible and
transparent board of trustees. Not only that, there is even no football
team in this state, governed by a football-playing governor, with a
structure that can boast of well managed reserve teams, scientifically
equipped age-grade academies, with qualified coaches/trainers to manage
the academies.

Installing change

Wednesday May 12,
2010, marked the 20th anniversary of the commencement of a professional
football league in Nigeria, and by extension, Lagos State. The statute,
which established the Football Association put in place to administer
the football league, stipulated in part, that all the football teams
registering to participate in the league, had seven years to be
transformed into professional football clubs. This has unfortunately
not taken place in any state of the federation – including Lagos. This
is a travesty of the nobility of this beautiful game – one of the most
viable (if not the most viable) vocations on earth today. It should not
be like this in our own dearly beloved, Lagos, a state of excellence.
This must change. The labour of past heroes of this great state must
not be in vain.

Permit me to
repeat, for the sake of emphasis, that no matter how mundane or
pedestrian grassroots sports development may seem to many of our so –
called stakeholders, administrators, corporate organisations, and very
unfortunately, some media outfits, if we fail in Lagos state to
establish a culture of excellent sports development – with integrity as
the foundation, the systematic evolution of young sports persons,
through a very sound scientific and up-to-date technical approach,
needed to take sports to higher levels in this state and Nigeria, will
never be actualised.

How did the
infrastructure and structure that once made this state force to be
respected nationally and internationally, collapse so badly within the
last two decades, that even Lagosians are no longer confident our
sporting prowess. How did our slogan change from Eko for gold
(excellence, valour, leadership, triumph, etc), to Eko for show? Why
have we allowed mundane things like lust for money and power tussle
crowd out very relevant and progressive issues that are meant naturally
to add value to the present administration in the state? Why do many of
our sports executives – association chairpersons, committee presidents,
ex-this, ex-that and some people who claim to be friends of Governor
Fashola, perpetuate the myth that their presence is permanent?

Why are ideas
plagiarised and committed into the hands of cronies, who eventually
debase the value of such wonderful ideas, in an extremely unworthy
manner? These are questions begging for answers.

Really, an overhaul of mindset and structures is needed. The first
step is to change this laughable idea of placing sports at the local
government level under the supervision of the agriculture ministry.

Vincent Enyeama wowed the global
football audience, as well as millions of Nigerian football fans, with
his all-yellow football apparel along with his numerous saves
throughout Nigeria’s unsuccessful run at the World Cup.

To the average football fan, the Israel
based goalkeeper was Nigeria’s best player at the World Cup so it may
come as a shock to them that someone else other than Enyeama was
actually the country’s best performer in South Africa, according to the
Castrol Performance Index, CPI, which FIFA is using to rate players in
this tournament.

While Enyeama earned a credible 7.11
rating on the CPI, Lukman Haruna, the previously unheralded midfielder
grabbed 7.81 points to rank as the country’s top performer.

In third place is one player a
cross-section of Nigerian football fans have blamed for the Super
Eagles’ loss to Greece, Sani Kaita who finished with a modest 6.26
rating followed by Taye Taiwo and the combative Dickson Etuhu, who
covered more distance than any other Nigerian player at the World Cup –
slightly over 29 kilometres.

Other players like Chidi Odiah, Chinedu
Obasi and Danny Shittu also earned ratings from the CPI but there was
no data available for the legendary Nwankwo Kanu, despite playing 57
minutes in the 2-2 draw against Korea Republic, as well as Yusuf Ayila
and the five unused players – John Utaka, Dele Adeleye, Brown Ideye,
Austin Ejide and Dele Aiyenugba.

What is the Castrol Index?

The Castrol
Performance Index is a ranking system sponsored by Castrol. The system
uses mathematical formulas which evaluate various player performance in
terms of how individual actions either assist or prevent goals.

The system takes into account the strength of the opposition and the time in a game the player’s actions occurred.

Developed in
conjunction with Arsenal manager and Castrol global ambassador Arsène
Wenger, every pass, tackle and move on the field is measured and
assessed to see if it has a positive or negative impact on a team’s
ability to score or concede a goal. As such, the Castrol Index is the
definitive system to objectively analyse and rank player performances
throughout the 2010 World Cup.

Lukman Haruna

Matches played: 2

Minutes played: 180

Goals scored: 0

Fouls committed: 4

Fouls suffered: 4

Total shots: 3

Shots on goal: 0

Total passes: 89

Passes completed: 66

Distance covered: 20.02 km

Castrol index: 7.81

Vincent Enyeama Matches played: 3

Minutes played: 270

Goals scored: 0

Fouls committed:1

Fouls suffered:1

Saves:20

Total passes:93

Passes completed: 53

Distance covered: 8.54 km

Castrol index: 7.11

Sani Kaita

Matches played: 2

Minutes played:123

Goals scored:0

Fouls committed:1

Fouls suffered:0

Total shots:2

Shots on goal: 0

Total passes:55

Passes completed: 38

Distance covered: 13.80 km

Castrol index:6.26

Taye Taiwo

Matches played:2

Minutes played:130

Goals scored:0

Fouls committed:1

Fouls suffered:1

Total shots:4

Shots on goal:1

Total passes:60

Passes completed: 35

Distance covered:

10.91km

Castrol index:

6.18

Dickson Etuhu

Matches played:

3 Minutes played:

270 Goals scored:

0 Fouls committed:

5 Fouls suffered:

1 Total shots:

0 Shots on goal:

0 Total passes:

123 Passes completed: 96 Distance covered:

29.07 km Castrol index:

6.15

Yakubu Aiyegbeni

Matches played:

3 Minutes played:

250 Goals scored:

1 Fouls committed:

9 Fouls suffered:

5 Total shots:

5 Shots on goal:

2 Total passes:

78 Passes completed: 40 Distance covered:

24.24 km Castrol index:

6.11

Chidi Odiah

Matches played:

3 Minutes played:

270 Goals scored:

0 Fouls committed:

1 Fouls suffered:

1 Total shots:

0 Shots on goal:

0 Total passes:

150 Passes completed: 101 Distance covered:

26.00 km Castrol index:

5.40

Chinedu Obasi

Matches played:3

Minutes played:

194 Goals scored:

0 Fouls committed:

6 Fouls suffered:

5 Total shots:

6 Shots on goal:

1 Total passes:

83 Passes completed: 59 Distance covered:

21.60 km Castrol index:

5.36

Danny Shittu

Matches played:3

Minutes played:

270 Goals scored:

0 Fouls committed:

6 Fouls suffered:

0 Total shots:

0 Shots on goal:

0 Total passes:

74 Passes completed: 63 Distance covered:

24.19 km Castrol index:

5.30

Kalu Uche

Matches played:

3 Minutes played:

195 Goals scored:

2 Fouls committed:

1 Fouls suffered:

5 Total shots:

7 Shots on goal:

4 Total passes:

81 Passes completed: 61 Distance covered:

20.92 km Castrol index:

5.28

Obinna Nsofor

Matches played:

2 Minutes played:

72 Goals scored:

0 Fouls committed:

0 Fouls suffered:

0 Total shots:

3 Shots on goal:

0 Total passes:

89 Passes completed: 66 Distance covered:

20.02 km Castrol index:

5.06

Obafemi Martins

Matches played:

2 Minutes played:

71 Goals scored:

0 Fouls committed:

0 Fouls suffered:

2 Total shots:

2 Shots on goal:

1 Total passes:

21 Passes completed: 10 Distance covered: 8.07 km Castrol index:

4.89

Osaze Odemwingie

Matches played:

2 Minutes played:

76 Goals scored:

0 Fouls committed:

2 Fouls suffered:

2 Total shots:

0 Shots on goal:

0 Total passes:

34 Passes completed: 20 Distance covered: 8.84 km Castrol index:

4.85

Joseph Yobo

Matches played:

3 Minutes played:

226

Goals scored:

0 Fouls committed:

1 Fouls suffered:

0 Total shots:

0 Shots on goal:

0 Total passes:

65 Passes completed: 39 Distance covered:

19.42 km Castrol index:

4.73

Rabiu Afolabi

Matches played:

2

Minutes played:

103

Goals scored:

0 Fouls committed:

0 Fouls suffered:

1 Total shots:

0 Shots on goal:

0 Total passes:

55 Passes completed: 39 Distance covered:

11.01 km Castrol index:

4.67

Uwa Echiejile

Matches played:

2 Minutes played:

66 Goals scored:

0 Fouls committed:

1 Fouls suffered:

0 Total shots:

0 Shots on goal:

0 Total passes:

26 Passes completed: 14 Distance covered: 7.03 km Castrol index:

4.67

Yusuf Ayila

Matches played:

1 Minutes played:

90 Goals scored:

0 Fouls committed:

5 Fouls suffered:

0 Total shots:

0 Shots on goal:

0 Total passes:

49 Passes completed: 36 Distance covered:

10.58 km Castrol index:

No data available

Nwankwo Kanu

Matches played:

1 Minutes played:

57 Goals scored:

0 Fouls committed:

1 Fouls suffered:

4 Total shots:

0 Shots on goal:

0 Total passes:

17 Passes completed: 13 Distance covered: 5.92 km Castrol index:

No data available

Dele Aiyenugba

Castrol index: No data available

Dele Adeleye

Castrol index:No data available

Austin Ejide

Castrol index: No data available

Brown Ideye

Castrol index: No data available

John Utaka Castrol index:

No data available

Matches Win: 0 Draw: 1 Loss: 2 Goals scored For:

3 Against:

5 Penalties:

1 Goals scored in
penalty area: 2 Goals conceded in penalty area: 3 Goals scored from
outside penalty area: 1 Goals conceded from outside penalty area: 2
Cards Yellow: 5 Red: 1 Top scorers Kalu Uche: 2 Yakubu Aiyegbeni: 1
Total shots Kalu Uche: 7 Chinedu Obasi: 6 Yakubu Aiyegbeni: 5 Taye
Taiwo: 4 Obafemi Martins:

2 Other statistics Assists:

1 Offsides:

1 Average ball possession rate: 44% Solo runs: 40 Deliveries in penalty area: 11 Clearances: 45 Clearances completed: 9 Saves:

21 Tackles:

21 Recovered balls: 17 Passes (Completion rate %) Total passes: 1180
Passes completed: 799 Passes completion rate: 67.71% Long passes: 247
Long passes completed: 104 Long passes completion rate: 42.11% Medium
passes: 663 Medium passes competed: 504 Medium passes completion rate:
76.02% Short passes: 270 Short passes completed: 191 Short passes
completion rate: 70.74% Crosses: 41 Crosses completed: 6 Crosses
completion rate: 14.63% Corners: 8 Corners completed: 6 Crosses
completion rate: 14.63% Top performers Chidi Odiah: 150 (67%) Dickson
Etuhu: 123 (78%) Vincent Enyeama: 93 (57%) Lukman Haruna: 89 (74%)
Chinedu Obasi: 83 (71%) Fouls Fouls committed: 45 Fouls suffered: 32
Top culprits Yakubu Aiyegbeni: 9 Chinedu Obasi: 6 Danny Shittu: 6
Dickson Etuhu: 5 Yusuf Ayila: 5

As Nigerians grieve
over their national team’s ouster from the World Cup, one group of
Nigerians would at this point be feeling the loss more than the rest of
us.

That group is the
executive committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). NFF
president, Sani Lulu must be cursing his luck that our Eagles have
booked an early flight home from South Africa. He must be in pains
right now but not for the same reason as the rest of us.

Lulu knows that
with the world Cup over for Nigeria, his game is up. He knows that his
carefully crafted plan of sneaking back into office when his tenure
expires in August is in danger of unravelling.

While the Eagles
were in South Africa, Lulu’s second term machine was grinding on with
his Man Friday, Barrister Mustapha, who was appointed head of the
electoral committee, taking charge.

Such has been
Lulu’s preoccupation with returning to office that he willfully
imperilled Nigeria’s preparation for the World Cup through inordinate
ambition and carelessness.

While his more
competent and forward looking counterparts were putting plans and
structures in place for successful outing at the Mundial, Lulu decided
that the proper thing to do was to “retouch” the NFF statutes. Between
2006, when he was elected as boss of the NFF, and now, Lulu has amended
the statutes of the federation three times.

Sleight of hand

While there’s
nothing wrong with amending the laws governing how a body is run, the
substance of such amendment becomes important when foul play is
suspected. In the case of the new statutes, which Lulu has crafted,
there is evidence to suggest that the NFF boss is bent on returning to
office by improper means. A pointer is the provision of article 21, m,
which states that:

“Each State
Football shall have its elective congress in November/December
succeeding the elective congress of the Federation within the senior
FIFA World Cup year”.

This provision
appears harmless until you understand the intention of the NFF
President. Under the 2004 statutes approved by the General Assembly of
the NFF (then NFA) in December 2004 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State and
which provided guidelines for the elections that produced Lulu as NFF
President, elections were held at the various constituencies- Local
Government Football Councils, States Football Associations and the
Zones. It was these delegates who then voted Lulu into office.

Logically
therefore, you would expect that before elections into the presidency
of the NFF, those who elect the president should themselves be elected
into office first. But Lulu had a different idea hence the provision of
article 21 above. With this provision, Lulu has tactfully extended the
tenure of the chairmen of state football associations in a bid to get
them to line up behind him.

The implication of
this action is that the same set of officials who voted him into office
in 2006 will be the same people to re-elect him without they themselves
being subjected to the electoral process. It was thus no surprise that
we saw that huge jamboree in South Africa, where Lulu took all state FA
Chairmen to ‘enjoy’ the World Cup. It was an advance payment of sorts
for the job they will be doing for him in August. The balance would be
paid later.

Again, to ensure
that nothing is left to chance, Lulu in the 2010 statutes, pruned the
number of delegates who will vote at the election in August from 101 to
44. With the 37 State FA chairmen whom he has graciously taken to the
World Cup lining up behind him, there is no prize for guessing who will
win the election.

It took the efforts
of Segun Odegbami, former Nigeria international and one-time member,
who is running for the NFF presidency to checkmate Lulu. The NFF boss
has tactfully expunged that clause but is still keeping the statutes
close to his chest. Even the FA chairmen he wants to use as pawns have
not been informed of this latest development.

Rendering account

As of today, Lulu
has not made the 2010 statutes available to all members of the
federation, yet he insists on going ahead with elections in a month’s
time. Only this week Mustapha released a list of candidates who have
returned their forms. Expectably, only Lulu was the candidate for the
presidency! Ordinarily, one should not be bothered whether Lulu wanted
two or ten terms in office. As a Nigerian he is entitled to aspire to
any public office. However, given his record of performance in the last
four years he has been Nigeria’s FA boss, I do not think Nigerian
football needs another dose of his asphyxiating incompetence.

Now, that the World
Cup is over for us, attention should be focused squarely on Lulu and
his cronies. He should be forced to make the contents of the 2010
statutes public for Nigerians to see. More importantly, Sports Minister
and National Sports Commission (NSC) chairman, Ibrahim Bio, should ask
them to render an account of the money they received from the Nigerian
government.