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After a long wait
for Michael Essien, the Ghana Football Authority (GFA) stated on
Wednesday that the Ghanaian captain will not be fit in time for the
World Cup which starts in a fortnight.

The statement on
the GFA site read in part: “An evaluation by a combined team of medical
experts from the Ghana Football Association and Chelsea Football Club
revealed that Essien will not make full recovery until the end of July.
The Ghana Football Association wishes him full recovery and a quick
return to football action.”

Unending rehabilitation

The 27-year-old
Chelsea midfielder has been sidelined since suffering a knee injury
during the African Cup of Nations in January.

It had been thought
that Essien would return before the end of the season alongside Ashley
Cole for Chelsea. Cole fractured his left ankle on February 10 2010
against Everton. The 28-year-old England international though returned
in time to help the Blues grab the double, scoring the last goal in the
8-0 rout of Wigan on the last day.

What next for the Black Stars

This will further
heap a lot of pressure on recuperating Stephen Appiah, who has not
played club football for a year and Sulley Muntari, as both are not as
dynamic as Essien.

Essien played in 10
of Ghana’s 11 qualification matches, clocking more than 800 minutes of
game time, as Ghana finished at the top of their group, and
automatically sealed a spot at the World Cup. The Ghana coach had said
last week that Essien’s presence was invaluable to the Black Stars.

“Essien is an
important player, not only for Ghana but for the World Cup. He is one
of the best players in the world and the World Cup is an assembly of
the best,” said Coach Milovan Rajevac.

The coach must now tinker with the favoured 4-4-2 formation to
accommodate Udinese’s Kwadwo Asamoah alongside Sulley Muntari and
Appiah. Although Ghana won’t lack for presence in the centre of the
park, there will be something missing; and that will be Michael Essien,
who would make the line-up for any of the nations at the 2010 World Cup
a better team.

The twelve teams
which include four qualifiers from Lagos namely: 401 Planners FC of
Ajegunle, Talent Builders of Island, Ikeja All Stars of Ipaja and Kush
FC of Mainland are set to hit Lagos to compete for honours at the
maiden Gulder Ultimate Five-A-Side soccer tournament which hits the
home stretch this weekend.

After the rigours
of qualification from city to the regional and classification round of
matches concluded last weekend, matches will resume again on Monday
with the opening match between FUTA FC of Akure against high riding 401
Planners of Ajegunle.

The teams will do
battle at the first ever competitive Indoor mobile turf which has been
laid at the Indoor Sports Hall of National Stadium in Lagos.

The overall winner
of the competition will go home with N5 million while the first runner
up will receive N2 million for the effort and the third place team will
collect N1 million.

The registration and participation for the competition which began
in March was open to all who can access the 24 cities that have the
distinct privilege of hosting the games which was played in enclosed
venues with Astro turf endorsed by FIFA.

The Super Eagles
technical crew led by Lars Lagerback look set to lay greater emphasis
on the team’s attack as they continue their preparations for the World
Cup taking place in South Africa.

Roland Andersson,
an assistant to Lagerback, disclosed this to Swedish newspaper, Dagens
Nyheter. He noted that during the initial training sessions, the squad
worked on the defence and, following the prosecution of last Tuesday’s
international friendly against Saudi Arabia, will now focus more on
attack.

Concerning Tuesday
night’s game against the Saudis, Andersson said the tune-up game was
“important” since it offered the technical crew a chance “to see the
players in action, and what they can do individually.”

Lagerback opted to
play a 4-4-2 system featuring the likes of Danny Shittu, Elderson
Echiejile, Victor Anichebe, Nwankwo Kanu, Joseph Yobo and Austin Ejide
amongst other players in the starting line-up and ended up making six
substitutions before the end of the goalless encounter.

Andersson confirmed
that they decided on starting players who had not played a lot recently
in order “to get them going.” On Sunday, some of them will get to
feature in the international friendly against Colombia. The decision to
improve the team’s attack, according to Lagerback, is to strenghten the
team for the games against Argentina, Greece, and South Korea in the
first round of the World Cup.

Lagerback who said
he was “satisfied” that the Super Eagles did not concede a goal in the
friendly in Wattens, Austria, in a generally lacklustre performance,
said: “This is just a build-up phase, we have only had four training
sessions,” adding that the Super Eagles “still needed a few aces.”

The squad has had some injuries including Chelsea midfielder John
Obi Mikel, and defender Onyekachi of Nice who were both missing from
the tie against the Saudis; but Lagerback, the erstwhile handler of the
Swedish national team, said he was hopeful the two would be fit to play
in the friendly on Sunday against Colombia.

Former Nigeria
international Nduka Ugbade feels all hope is not yet lost for the Super
Eagles regarding their chances of posting a good outing at the World
Cup, despite Tuesday night’s goal-less draw against Saudi Arabia.

The Super Eagles
were far from impressive against the Saudis in the encounter played in
the Austrian town of Wattens and did little to boost the confidence of
their teeming fans ahead of the World Cup.

In fact, the
general impression amongst Nigerians in the aftermath of Tuesday’s
friendly match is that the Super Eagles will struggle in South Africa
where they will be up against Argentina, Greece and South Korea, but
Ugbade, although not equally impressed with the performance of most of
the players that prosecuted the game against the Saudis, feels there
were a couple of positives from the encounter.

“As a Nigerian, I
wasn’t happy about the score line but I think it wasn’t all that bad,
as there were some good points as well. I’d say there’s still hope for
the team,” said Ugbade, a former Super Eagles defender.

“First of all, Lars
Lagerback finally got to play a match and got to assess the fitness
level of some of the players who didn’t get to play on a regular basis
for their clubs.”

Last chance to shine

Lagerback kept out
the likes of Taye Taiwo, Dickson Etuhu, Vincent Enyeama, Aiyegbeni
Yakubu and Osaze Odemwingie from the game against the Saudis but there
is a possibility they will all get to feature on Sunday against
Colombia in the team’s last friendly match before the Swede gets to
name his final 23-man squad for the World Cup.

Ugbade expects
Lagerback to present a much stronger line up for the game against the
Colombians but he wouldn’t mind taking another look at the likes of
Terna Suswan, Victor Anichebe and Haruna Lukman, who stood out against
the Saudis.

“The guy from Lobi
Stars (Suswan) impressed me, so also did Haruna Lukman and Anichebe,”
he said. “I don’t know if they have done enough to impress the coach
and I don’t know if they have been doing the same thing at their
training sessions but I think they did a good job.”

Looking ahead to
the Colombia tie, Ugbade expects a more aggressive, albeit not so
cohesive, display from the Super Eagles even though he is quick to
admit that it is still too early for the team to start playing the way
Lagerback would prefer them to.

“I think they will
be more aggressive against Colombia, as it will be the last chance for
some of the players to make it into the World Cup team but I don’t
think we should expect to see a great deal of cohesion, as it is still
a bit too early for that,” added Ugbade.

The Super Eagles
are now ranked 21st in the world after dropping a step in the latest
rankings released by world football governing body, FIFA yesterday.

The team however
remains Africa’s third best team as Egypt still leads the continent
sitting pretty in the 12th position after moving one step up. World Cup
bound Cameroun maintains its 19th position in the World, which makes it
Africa’s second best team.

Little changes

Only about 20
friendly matches were played worldwide in the last few weeks.
Accordingly, there were only minor changes to the latest edition of the
world rankings the last to be published before the 2010 FIFA World Cup
South Africa.

The neck-to-neck
battle for top spot between leaders; Brazil and European champions
Spain continues as the former still leads the pack.

However both teams
have a clear lead over the chasing pack of Portugal, Netherlands and
Italy who are ranked 3rd and 4th respectively.

Trailing even
farther behind, after Germany, Argentina, England and France, are two
teams not in for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa; Croatia and Russia
– who are likely to lose even more ground after the tournament.

Meanwhile, hosts
South Africa have received a boost, winning not only two friendly
matches, but also gaining seven places in the ranking (83rd, up 7),
which is more than any other team. The team coached by Brazilian Carlos
Alberto Parreira, has not lost in ten games.

The only other
teams to climb five or more places were Oman (91st, up 6) and Estonia
(99th, up 5). In the top 100, Burkina Faso (48th, up 4) and Montenegro
(64th, up 1) are currently in their highest-ever position since the
ranking was introduced.

Of the top 20 teams, only Croatia, Russia and Egypt will be absent in South Africa.

That FIFA has finally decided to clamp down on this outrageous
crime in football is a welcome development. How sincere this decision is and
how successful the war will be, will be based on how serious FIFA is, and how
desirous national football associations are.

Nigerians must therefore, appreciate the current Sports
Minister, for his bold directive to all sports associations in Nigeria, to
ensure that all athletes representing Nigeria in any age-grade competition,
must undergo a mandatory age verification test.

Lulu obstacle

Thank you Bio, but would your ‘big boys’ inside the Abuja glass house,
especially your classmate, Sani Lulu, obey? Will the loquacious, ‘basket-mouth’
Secretary General, agree with you? I am very sure that millions of Nigerians
have not forgotten the war of supremacy between Sani Ndanusa, your predecessor,
and Sani Lulu, over the age verification method the Nigeria Football Federation
(NFF) should adopt in order to confirm the true ages of the players who
represented us during the last U-17 FIFA World Cup tournament hosted by this
nation.

While Ndanusa insisted on using the M.R.I. equipment, Lulu
posited that parents of the players should be invited to verify the true ages
of their children. Well, thank God he did not suggest that the ‘men’ should
place their left or right hands on their heads and touch either the right or
left ear with such hands. Please don’t laugh, because this is not a laughable
issue. It is an issue that must be treated as absolutely unacceptable.

This obnoxious practice totally negates the fundamental
socio-political, economic, educational, and behavioural principles of football.
Perpetrators of this aberration including parents, school teachers, head
teachers, principals, coaches, and members of the so-called NFF, must be told
very unambiguously that they are not assisting in a process by which millions
of Nigerian children can be exposed early in life to the spirit of fair play,
respect, hard work, teamwork, self discipline, and tolerance. These are
attributes that can prepare our young ones for future leadership roles. Our
young ones must not be encouraged to cheat. Besides, it must be clearly
understood that this is one of the reasons largely responsible for the moral
decadence presently experienced in homes, schools, faith-based organisations,
and work places today.

Women also involved

Maybe it is important for Nigerians to be reminded that this
nation has paraded about 170 footballers in the last 9 editions of the FIFA
organised U-17 male competitions. But less than 10 of these 170 have been able
to make it to the senior World Cup level. Why? Simply because we have been
cheating.

The situation is not getting better anyway.

With the recent female players paraded by Nigeria against the
South Africans at the women U-17 World Cup qualifiers in Abeokuta, I was
ashamed and regretted going to watch the match. Haba! Even a blind man could
feel the fact that we paraded women, and not girls, as did the South Africans,
simply because we must win and qualify for the female World Cup. And because
that will enable some heartless individuals line their pockets with some hard
currencies.

Well, South Africa justifiably lodged a protest with FIFA
against Nigeria. It is interesting, but not surprising, that FIFA threw the
protest overboard, claiming, according to very reliable sources, that “South
Africa’s protest had no basis because Nigeria’s team was made up of young
players. Had they been older, it would have been a different scenario…”

FIFA unhelpful

Hmmn, anyone who claims that those women who represented us
against South Africa were U-17 girls should be subjected to a “head check” in
Abeokuta or Yaba.

FIFA’s response has not also helped matters at all. However,
this not surprising. That is why I mentioned earlier on that the success of
this so called M.R.I. tests will depend on whether FIFA is serious about it or
not.

My position has to do with what has been suggested many times in
this column. There is the urgent need for the sports ministry to educate
Nigerians, especially parents/guardians, on the negative implications of
age-falsification. Can Bio achieve this with Lulu and his cohorts?

Genuine grassroots football development supporters in Nigeria do
not sincerely think so. May God rescue this nation from the grips of enemies of
Nigerian sports, especially football. Amen.