Nigeria Content Online

Adebayo Babalola, a former national champion and
Chess Master is about to relieve the good times as he leads a pack of players
at the Chess Olympiad trial put together by the Nigeria Chess Federation (NCF).
He is in a joint lead with other players after two rounds of games in the
nine-round Swiss-type tournament.

Representing Lagos State, he sits atop the leader
board with Ochuko Omuapkeje, Ifeanyi Okonkwo, Oluwole Oladele, Toyin Jegede and
Olanrewaju Ajibola.

The trial will not see the likes of major players
Adebayo Babalola and Bomo Kigigha who are absent from the event but the highest
ranked player present, national champion, Bunmi Olape is yet to find a way with
seven rounds to go.

In Tuesday
matches, Babalola’s opening gambit was playing in black side of King’s pawn
against Inimo Kigigha. He transposed the game into King’s Indian defence and
seized the advantage with move 15 and increased the tempo until move 30 when his
opponent got at par but when an ambitious Kigigha pressed further for a win, he
blundered on move 44 and had to resign after three moves on mate threat.

Debutant at the last World Chess Olympiad,
Charles Campbell implored Nimzo Indian defence to check an ambitious Chima
Ngebmena to a draw despite been a pawn up on move 27.Event-favourite, Olape is
still struggling to get his bearing and had to settle for another draw against
Olamide Ajibowo, a player on the rise.

Olape missed an opportunity to secure a massive
advantage on move 21 in Sicilian defence (Nardjof variation). Ajibowo was a
pawn up but both players had knights and with both in trouble, they settled for
a draw.

In the female division, Rosemary Amadasun, Uwa
Obasi Chekwas and Doris Adebayo lead the group with matches against one other
coming in round three. This would determine the clear leader when the pairing
for the next round is made.

The president of the chess federation, Sani Mohammed reinstated the fact
that players that missed the on-going trial will not be given a wild card to
join the race for the final stage which will come up next month. 84 out of the
invited 118 players showed up for the trials.

Mohammed said: “We invited 64 male and 54 female for this stage of the trial
but 56 and 28 male and female respectively showed up and some of the players
requested for exemption. But like we did the last time, we have maintained the
standards and we must not be seen as favouring certain players in the final
selection of players to the world competition.”

Whatever happens this weekend when our home based Eagles face
Niger Republic in the qualifying match for the African Nations Cup, is
immaterial. Their performance in the first leg, when they lost 0-2 to Niger
away, confirmed what we knew all along: our home based are not good enough for
the Super Eagles.

Most of us agree our league is bad, but when the issue of
players for the national team is raised, we throw caution to the wind, we
remember our brother, cousin or friend who could be a beneficiary if home based
players are given a chance, and we start clamouring for their inclusion in the
Super Eagles.

But how can a league that we all agree is bad produce good
players? Imagine, the best of our home boys cannot beat the best of Niger home
boys. How would they have fared against Argentina, Greece or South Korea?

The home based Eagles are a product of a league were the quality
of play is appalling, where officiating is terrible, where medical and welfare
does not exist, and where the league governing board spends 90 per cent of the
money they receive from Globacom, the official sponsor of the league, on
administration and other expenses, while only 10 per cent is spent on football.

Players’ commitment

A school of thought argues that our overseas based players are
successful financially, that is why they are not committed to the national
team; but what about the home based that are struggling to eke out a living
from football? They are also not committed.

Those who watched the match against Niger said our boys played
as if nothing was at stake. The reason for this is not farfetched; most of them
are lined up for one trial or the other abroad, and they are playing to avoid
injury, so they are as guilty as their foreign counterparts who are playing to
avoid injuries that could make them loose their place in the starting lineup.

Another school of thought argues that the national coach, Lars
Lagerback, should look inward; after all, the winner of the last three
editions, Egypt, had most of its players from the Egyptian league.

Valid argument, on face value, but when subjected to filtration,
it pales into insignificance because, one can only compare likes, and the
Egyptian league is not in any way comparable to our Nigerian league.

Egyptian clubs can compare with European clubs in terms of
welfare, medical, management, organization, and other aspects of the game. That
is why, like Brazilians and Argentines, Egyptians leave European clubs to go
back home and play for their clubs. You hardly see Nigerians leaving European
clubs to play at home. Save for the retired or semi-retired players that grace
our league once in a while, like Rasheed Yekini, majority prefer to hand in
their boots or go into management.

The argument that our players and clubs have consistently
performed well in the CAF Champions League and the Confederation Cup does not
equally hold water. The decline in the level of the African football league is
generally responsible for the success of our team.

In the golden age of the African football league, when countries
like Guinea, Cameroon, Senegal and others had clubs with players whose
credentials were intimidating, where were Nigerian clubs then?

A similar argument is made about English club performances in
the last few years, in the UEFA Champions League and the state of English
football. Yes, Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool have done
excellently well in the Champions League in the last five years, but if you
look at the team, there are a few English players that are making this happen.

Cristaino Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez, Patrice Evra and most of the
players that helped United win the league in 2008 and took them to the 2009
final, are not English. In the World Cup and the European, England is a
perennial underachiever.

Advise for our coach

With time being his worst enemy, Lagerback need not be
distracted by the so-called home based Eagles, rather he should concentrate on
our foreign legion, and find a way of selecting the best for the country.

Unlike Shaibu Amodu before him, Lagerback should avoid the
costly mistake of selecting players based on pedigree and sentiment, but on
current form and fitness.

As for the home based Eagles, they will only form the nucleus of
our national team if we overhauled every aspect of our league.

From welfare to security, media, facilities, medical,
remuneration, youth development, marketing, ownership structure, and other
aspects of the league. If we can do all these in the next few years, our clubs
will no longer be feeder teams to clubs in the European league, rather they
will be able to retain our talents, so that if any of our players will move
abroad, it will be the very best that will move abroad, not the situation we
have now where our players are buying one way tickets to play in Malta, India,
Gabon, Iran, and other countries with very poor pedigrees. Until our league is
on a par with that of Egypt, talk about home based Eagles playing in the World
Cup is a mirage.

Super Eagles defender, Olubayo Adefemi has said Lionel Messi and
the Argentina squad will face a hard time when they come up against Nigeria at
the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

The Flea, as the World Footballer of the Year is called, has
dominated global headlines with his scintillating performances that have
culminated in a goals spree for Barcelona. Messi has a remarkable goal tally of
34 strikes in all competitions this season for the Spanish champions and he
will be expected to confirm his status as the best player on the planet by
leading Argentina to glory at the World Cup. As a matter of fact, Barcelona has
68 goals this season and Messi accounts for 64 in terms of goals and assists.

Lack of credible
defenders in La Liga

Yet, Adefemi, who has come up against the diminutive player at
international level on two different occasion says the youngster will not be
able to bully the Eagles like he does to his opponents at club level.

” I have seen some of the games and I would not accept Messi can
easily be going around our players like he mesmerises his opponents in Spain.
Sometimes you look at the quality shown by the opposition in the Spanish
League, you just have to laugh at how they allow him such pace and ease,” said
the Boulogne defender who has lost in two different meetings with the Barcelona
star.

Adefemi was in the Flying Eagles squad that lost 2-1 to a
Messi-inspired Argentina U-20 squad in the final of the 2005 World Youth
Championship in Holland, and the U-23 Eagles that surrendered the Beijing
Olympic football gold medal to Argentina in 2008. Messi was once again the
anchor man as he provided the pass Angel Di Maria converted for the only goal
of the game.

“We all know he is a good player no doubt, I think people can
still remember how we made life difficult for him at the Olympics. We lost both
games narrowly because it was a close fight. I expect another big fight at the
World Cup and honestly we will have to wait and see if he can enjoy those easy
moves he is having in La Liga.”

The other Argentine
strikers

Messi is not the only Argentine in top form as the trio of
Gonzalo Higuain, Carlos Tevez and Sergio Aguero have plundered close to 70
goals in the league in between them at club level this season.

It appears an intimidating scorecard considering the fact that
our Eagles trio of Yakubu Aiyegbeni, Obinna Nsofor and Obafemi Martins have
only managed a combined total 12 league goals albeit with some injury problems
in the course of the campaign. Osaze who has just begun a new season with his
Russian Premier League side, Lokomotiv Moscow netted only seven goals in 23
appearances for his team last season and he has not scored in the two-week old
new Russian league season.

Concern about Nigerian
strikers

Samson Siasia, ex-Eagles international and former national
coach, who had scored for the Eagles in their 2-1 against Argentina in
Nigeria’s maiden appearance at the 1994 World Cup held in the United States
admits he is worried about the current performance of our strikers just over
two months to the start of the global competition.

“You have to be worried as a coach when you look at the
performance of our strikers just like you will naturally be happy if the goals
are flowing ahead of the World Cup. It is better when the players are showing
good form and we are hoping to see that from them as the World Cup gets
closer,” said the former Flying Eagles coach.

Nduka Ugbade, who also played alongside Siasia in the Eagles
squad that won the 1994 African Cup of Nations in Tunisia insists the players
must improve with their form for the Eagles to have any chance of qualifying
for the second round of the Mundial.

“We will have just about three weeks to prepare as a team for the World Cup
and currently things are not at the level you expect from the players. I hope
they attain high level of fitness as they will be moving to the national camp
for the World Cup preparation immediately after the end of the season,” he
said.

These are certainly the best of times for Barcelona star Lionel
Messi who has extended his lead in the game beyond the pitch by becoming the
highest earner in world football, putting an end to David Beckham’s two-year
reign as the world’s best-paid footballer.

The 22-year-old Argentine forward pockets an estimated £29.6
million annually, closely followed by Beckham at £27.3m, while Real Madrid
hotshot Cristiano Ronaldo sits in third place with his estimated earnings
having hit the £27m mark.

A £3.6 million bonus earned by Messi for winning the treble last
season with Barcelona took him ahead of the England star, according to the rich
list.

Messi was also ranked as the fourth highest-earning sports
person in the world, behind golfers Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, and
basketball star LeBron James.

Carlos Tevez takes the title of highest earner in English
football, coming in seventh place overall at £13.8m.

The ‘Special One’ leads
the pack

Jose Mourinho, whose Inter team last week knocked his former
club Chelsea out of Europe, saw his stock rise further as he topped the list of
football’s highest-earning managers.

The Portuguese manager and self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ earns
£11.7m a year, with Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini in second place making
£10.8m. Former Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari, now coaching at
little-known big spenders Bunyodkor in Uzbekistan, comes in third at £8.5m.

Fabio Capello edges past Guus Hiddink into fifth, the pair being the only
two national team coaches on the top 10 horizon.

Despite scepticism from sections of the western press, and some
European football pundits about the ability of South Africa to host the FIFA
World Cup, Hristo Stoichkov, former Barcelona star and Bulgarian international
said South Africa is up to the test, and will not disappoint the world.

Stoichkov went to South Africa less than a year ago to take up
the coaching position at Mamelodi Sundowns, but he resigned after failing to
lead the club to the league title. However, the Bulgarian has only words of
praise for the country.

“Having seen the infrastructure here, I’m sure they will not
disappoint. South Africa will pass this test.” Stoichkov said of the South
Africa’s hosting ability.

Stoichkov, who led Sundowns to second place in the Premiership
only a point off the pace of champions Supersport, waved away the possible
concerns of tourists who will travel to the country for the FIFA World Cup.

Beautiful country

“Before coming here, I had read a lot in the newspapers, a lot
of negative things.

However, what I have experienced is something different to what
I read.

“I have been staying in South Africa for many months now, and I
think it’s a very beautiful country. It’s very nice here, I like it a lot,” the
man who was joint top-scorer at USA 1994 told FIFA.com during an interview. “I
don’t like comparing places because places are different. Barcelona is
different from Johannesburg, so is Cape Town. I don’t mean that in a bad way,
but people must understand that places are different. In those three places,
you find different people with different cultures, so of course the experiences
will be different,” he said. “I walk around a lot, I go to many places. I have
made many friends here. I meet people in the streets and my experience has been
good with them. Like any country in the world, there are places you don’t have
to go to. And, this applies to Madrid, Barcelona or London.”

In South Africa, Stoichkov is widely admired for his role at the
1994 FIFA World Cup as well as for his time with Barcelona. The quick-thinking
and skilful Bulgarian was part of what is now fondly referred to as the Catalan’s
“dream team,” which dominated Europe in the early 1990’s. He also endeared
himself to Sundowns supporters after he turned around what had initially looked
like an average season for the club and had them fighting for league honours
until the last week of the campaign.

Chances of African teams

Talking about how he thinks the African teams will perform at
the World, the former player hinged Africa’s hope on Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.
He doesn’t rate Nigeria as one of the African teams that might perform well.
“You have Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, very good teams. Then there’s South Africa
whom I think will have a point to prove. Those three African sides will be hard
to beat.” Although he is hesitant to predict which country will win, Stoichkov
doesn’t expect a surprise. “You have countries like Brazil, England, Spain,

Italy, Argentina – they are all favourites. All these teams are
organised and will be dangerous. Then you have the African teams whom I believe
will fight very hard in this tournament.

The legendary player turned coach, who has also led the
Bulgarian national team and Celta Vigo in Spain, rates Barcelona’s Lionel Messi
high and insists the in-form Barcelona maestro is the player to watch in this
World Cup. “He is the best player in the world at the moment. He is playing for
the best team [Barcelona] and he is very good.

“At the moment, if you talk about the best players, you have to
mention [Wayne] Rooney,

Cristiano [Ronaldo], Kaka, [Andres] Iniesta and few others that I might have
forgotten. Of course you will have the African guys like Didier Drogba and
[Samuel] Eto’o,” he said.

Africa’s football governing body, the Confederation of African
Football (CAF), has held a review of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, which
ended in Angola in February.

A workshop on the tournament, which commenced at the body’s
headquarters in Egypt on Tuesday and ended yesterday, was declared open by the
CAF Deputy General Secretary, Hicham El Amrani.

In attendance at the event were some of Africa’s brightest
technical minds, including former Super Eagles coach, Adegboye Onigbinde who is
a member of CAF’s technical committee. Other technocrats at the event included
Ghana’s Ben Kouffie, equally a member of CAF’s technical committee, as well as
Hassan Shehata, the coach who led Egypt to three consecutive Nations Cup
titles, including the last edition held in Angola.

Identifying key
challenges

According to the organisers, the aim of the workshop was to
provide a technical and tactical analysis of the African flagship competition
held in Angola, to help identify key challenges in the pursuit of developing
the game on the continent.

El Amrani was quoted on the CAF website as saying that the
workshop represented a testimony of CAF’s commitment towards the development of
the game to an appreciable standard. He said the symposium gives to coaches, as
well as technical directors, a great opportunity to exchange their know-how,
whilst observing some modern trends in the game.

“For CAF, this event is of our dearest concern, as it provides a
platform for the major players who brought a significant role in the success of
the tournament to come together, exchange ideas and forge ahead. “With the
first ever World Cup on African soil few months away, we are hopeful that this
symposium will serve its purpose, especially to the continent’s coaching
license system launched in 2009,” he said.

The CAF’s Director of Development, Abdel Moneim Hussein who was also at the
event, said the workshop is significant since it provides a platform for
technical people to share and review their performance during the 27th edition
of the continent’s biggest football spectacle.

First, the needful
disclosure. I am a Catholic and as such immunised from any accusation
of trying to run down the Catholic Church. The child sex scandal that
is ravaging the Catholic Church in Ireland, Brazil and Germany is
enervating. Let’s not assume that sexual abuse is not in the Catholic
Church in Nigeria. What I can say is that it is not largely directed at
children; but to teenage females. What irritates in the revelations in
these countries and in earlier scandals in the U.S.A is that the Church
is aware and tries to cover up by coercing the victims to sign vows of
silence. What is behind such callous effort is known as the brotherhood
morality- to sustain the integrity of the clergy or the group.

The brotherhood
morality is manifest in the disgraceful effort by the Athletics
Federation of Nigeria (AFN) to rubbish the career of Vivian
Chukwuemeka, the shot put athlete. We should be grateful to Olukayode
Thomas for the story in last Sunday’s NEXT which unravelled the
scandal. The story calls to question the integrity of the drug testing
procedure.

In this country of
mini-dictators, it is improbable that an individual could challenge an
institution and emerge victorious. If AFN was not walking from answers
to questions, the fact that there was a mix-up in the bottle number of
Vivian with that of an unnamed (or is it unknown) athlete would have
been enough proof for the AFN to call off its inquisition. How can the
athletics body say that the mix-up was not “sufficient to invalidate
the adverse analytical findings?” Did AFN test for DNA that makes it to
be sure that urine sample (in spite of the mix-up) is definitely
Vivian’s?

More so, Vivian
paid for a representative to be present at the testing in South Africa;
yet her representative was denied audience.

Was AFN not on a
fishing expedition? Vivian was accused of having failed a drugs test
and when she went for a hearing organised by AFN, she was presented
with the Orwellian charge of “aggravation of violation” (translation:
an athlete, Amaka Ogoegbulam, alleged that Vivian gave her the drugs
she took.) Yet, she was convicted over “adverse analytical findings.”
Which clinic took the test given that University of Free State Doping
Control Laboratory did not conduct the test because the number did not
match with her name?

Protecting Amaka

Is Amaka a kid they
are protecting? If Vivian gave Amaka the drugs, was she obliged to
ingest? Is she not of age to know the consequences of her action?

I am disappointed
that the defence of the doping officer, Femi Ayorinde, is that as an
assistant director, he has all the money he needs. How much does an
assistant director in the civil service earn to inoculate one against
temptations? Does Ayorinde think we are kids? How can he say that it is
not possible to manipulate samples? Yet, one happened with Vivian’s
sample which he dismisses as typographical error. Why was there no
typographical error in the samples of Amaka and the other accused,
Toyin Augustus?

And why was Toyin
not named initially as being one of the four that failed the drugs
test? Which documentation did Toyin provide to back her claim of taking
drugs for cervical cancer? What eventually led AFN to ban Toyin after
accepting her excuse which made her avoid the suspension clamped on the
other three?

I urge Mercy Nku to
speak up as she could offer clarity in the mess? The allegation that
Ayorinde apologised after Vivian accused him of switching her sample
and number with that of Uche Emedolu at the Gateway National Sports
Festival deserves investigation. And if Mercy validates the allegation,
Ayorinde should be prosecuted.

It is not
sufficient to dismiss Vivian’s allegations as that of a drowning lady.
We are in Nigeria and know that sexual harassment is rampant in this
country. People in authority now see satiation of sexual desire as one
of the perks of office.

The Police should get involved in this case as AFN president,
Solomon Ogba, is awaiting a petition. So, if Vivian does not petition,
these allegations against AFN process and its officials would be swept
under the carpet. Folks, that’s brotherhood morality at play!