Nigeria Content Online

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.

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.

The Premier League has announced plans to at least triple the
amount of coaching for promising young players in England which it hopes will
eventually help improve the quality of the national team.

Under the plans, Premier League academies will provide 15 to 20
hours of coaching a week for nine to 16-year-olds instead of the current five
hours, meaning youngsters would get even more coaching time than those in
Germany or Netherlands.

The plan, which might also include football schools, was agreed
by the 20 Premier League clubs before the World Cup in which England produced
their worst ever performance, League chief executive Richard Scudamore told
reporters on Tuesday.

England were thrashed 4-1 by Germany in the second round having
scraped through the group stage with just one win.

“There were 222 English-qualified players who played first-team
football in the Premier League last season and we believe that is enough to
find 11 to perform in international competition,” he said.

“But what we really want is an England manager who is spoiled
for choice. We sensed it before this World Cup. There wasn’t a huge debate
about the (30-man) squad — there was a little bit when the manager reduced it
down to 23.

The objective

“What we really want in the build-up to major tournaments is to
have 40, 50, 60 players in contention to get on the plane, that’s really the
objective rather than what looks a fairly self-selecting group.” He added: “I
can envisage a day where in the north-west of England we have a Premier League
school where a number of clubs have their boys.

“Or perhaps a sports school in London where a number of sports
get together and have a school for elite athletes, whether it be swimmers,
runners, rugby players or whatever.

Ged Roddy, the Premier League’s director of youth development,
added that the average 18-year-old at Ajax Amsterdam gets 6,000 hours of
‘contact time’ with coaches compared to 2,500 for the equivalent player in
England.

“We have lagged behind and we need to reconstruct the system,”
said Roddy, who added that the aim was to have about 10,000 hours of contact
time in future.

“That is what is needed to create an elite international
footballer,” he said.

The Football Association oversees youth development in England
and the Premier League’s plans are part of the overall development for elite
youngsters in the country.

Nigerian League champions, Enyimba, have shot to the top of the
standings at the Super Four tournament following their lone goal victory over
Sunshine Stars of Akure at the Gateway International Stadium, in Ijebu Ode.

The Aba-based outfit are favourites to win the pre-season
tournament organised by the Nigeria Premier League, but morale has been low
amongst the players following their unceremonious exit from the CAF
Confederation Cup last weekend at the hands of modest Zambian club side Zanaco.

There were still visible signs that the defeat to the Zambians
was still on the minds of the People’s Elephants, but that did not prevent the
Aba side from emerging victorious at the end of the day courtesy of a well
taken strike by Atanda Sakibu, which was at the end of the day good enough to
earn Enyimba the top spot after Wednesday’s round of matches at the Super Four
tourney.

The goal, which arrived in the 32nd minute of play, however came
against the run of play as Sunshine Stars had at that point of the game far
more possession than their more illustrious opponents but failed to translate
their dominance into goals.

Pillars forced to a draw

Earlier in the day, Kano Pillars and Kwara United had played a
goalless draw, also at the Gateway Stadium. Pillars, which finished just behind
Enyimba in the league standings at the end of last season, were the dominant
side for most of the game, despite resting most of their regulars and getting a
man sent off towards the end of the encounter watched by a sizeable crowd.

The team, managed by former Nigeria international, Salisu Yusuf,
are also in the tournament without their top scorer Ahmed Musa. The
record-breaking striker, who scored 18 goals last season for the Kano side,
eclipsing the 17-goal mark that was first set as far back as 1990 by Ishaya
Jatau, is away on international duty with the Nigeria’s Under-20 team, the
Flying Eagles and his absence, along with the other stars of the former league
champions was glaring as Pillars failed to get the better of a Kwara United
side managed by another former international Kadiri Ikhana.

Yusuf however stated that the team was not missing the services
of Ahmed Musa as the team is ready for life after the record leading scorer of
the Nigerian Premier League who will soon head out to Europe to team up with
Dutch Eredivisie outfit VVV Venlo.

Kano Pillars’ Kamilu Ammani had the best chance of the first
half on 24 minutes when he turned inside of his marker but found himself foiled
by Kwara United’s goalkeeper, Kareem Yekeen who was impressive all through the
game.

In the second half, Yusuf introduced into the game some of his
star players, but the dismissal of Shehu Shagari 15 minutes from the end, as
well as an unpardonable miss in stoppage time by Ali Rabiu, prevented Pillars
from earning a deserved victory, a situation that had Yusuf fuming at the end
of the day.

“You can’t win a tournament without scoring goals so we have to score
goals,” exclaimed the Pillars coach at the end of the game.

For his part, Ikhana gave credit to his players for earning a point from the
encounter just as he looks ahead to their next game against Enyimba on Friday;
the same day Kano Pillars will be up against Sunshine Stars. “My boys fizzled
out towards the end of the game but we will work better in our next game,” said
the former Enyimba handler, before adding: “The boys tried their best.”

Both Ikhana and Yusuf however stated that their aim in Ijebu Ode remains to
win their upcoming matches and remain in contention for the five million naira
star prize.

The Premier League announced a series of
stringent new rules regarding club ownership, finance and tax reporting on
Tuesday to avoid a repeat of the crisis that brought Portsmouth close to
extinction last season.

“We now believe we have the measures in place,
the early warning system and the rules regarding change of ownership which will
enable us to reduce the risk of having a repeat of the Portsmouth situation,”
Chief Executive Richard Scudamore told a news conference.

“We have reduced the risk to extremely unlikely
proportions.” Portsmouth, who had a series of owners last season, were
relegated from the Premier League at the end of the campaign after amassing
debts of over 120 million sterling to tax authorities plus tens of millions
more to other creditors.

They went into administration in February,
suffering a nine-point penalty deduction, but would have finished bottom of the
table even without that.

The rules stipulate that both financial and
personal credentials of prospective owners will be closely scrutinised.

Any such bidders for the Premier League’s 20
clubs will have to prove they have the necessary funds to carry through a
takeover and to sustain the team for a year.

The Premier League’s Board has been empowered to
request a direct meeting with any potential buyers and to obtain information
from member clubs every quarter to ensure all tax and social security
contributions are in order.

The Premier League will also have the power to go
directly to tax authorities to ensure payments are up to date.

Individuals barred by other sporting
organisations will not be allowed to become a Premier League club director.

Reduce risk

“The object of the Premier League is to reduce risk to try and
prevent the worst happening, but ultimately we cannot eliminate risk entirely
because that would involve us interfering almost as shadow directors and
running clubs and we are not going to do that,” Scudamore said.

“We are not going to entirely eliminate the risk of a club
putting itself in an over-extended position but, by the measures we now have in
place, we can reduce that risk to a minimum.” He added that Portsmouth’s
mismanagement had damaged the League’s reputation and the worst of its problems
would have been avoided if the new rules had been in operation.

“There is reputational damage when you have a Portsmouth
situation. Those sort of headlines are not good.

“It is reputationally difficult because everyone gets tarred
with the same brush. The clubs that have run themselves extremely well,
prudently and sensibly, get tarred with the same brush that football is a
financial basket-case which it is not.

“Therefore, you have to do things that protect you from that
reputational risk and there was a mood to do that.” Scudamore said that the Premier
League’s turnover in the coming season would reach 1.2 billion pounds–an 18
per cent increase over last season.

Joe Erico, coach of
Lagos United, Nigeria’s representatives at the ongoing International
Youth Football tournament taking place in Lagos, has blamed his side’s
2-1 loss to Liberty FC of Ghana to lack of proper knowledge of his
players.

Erico, assistant
coach of Nigeria’s senior national team, the Super Eagles, under
Shuaibu Amodu at the 2002 Africa Cup of Nations in Mali, said he barely
knew his players. “I just met the team 12 days ago and I don’t even
know some of their names,” he said. “I chose to coach this team because
a saw it as an opportunity to promote grassroots sports.” He went on
further to say that the boys were handpicked, noting that of the “170
players that were invited, only 17 were picked.”

Captain of United,
Thomas Kanu, agreed with his coach noting that though he is excited to
be playing in the tournament, he is disappointed by the loss to Ghana.
He attributed the inability of his team to score goals to the fact that
the players still do not understand themselves well. “We just started
playing together 12 days ago. We were given opportunity to go on
holiday before we started camping,” Kanu said.

Felix Aboagye, coach of the Ghanaian side, expressed delight at his
team’s participation in the tournament noting that his team’s victory
over Nigeria was the result of deep understanding among his players.
“We have been together for quite a long time and these set of players
have been playing together for the past three years, therefore they
know each other well,” he said. Yaw Preko, captain of Liberty FC said
he was satisfied with the victory over Nigeria. “We are happy we won
this game. We came to Nigeria to win,” he said

Inter Milan coach
Rafael Benitez’s past returned to haunt him as his side lost 3-2 to
Panathinaikos in a pre-season friendly on Tuesday, but the Spaniard
preferred to focus on the challenges ahead rather than dwell on defeat.

Two goals from
striker Djibril Cisse and one from winger Sebastian Leto, both sold by
Benitez when he was in charge of Liverpool, were enough to give the
Greek double winners a well deserved win over Europe’s top team from
last season.

However, the loss
in his second game in charge since leaving Merseyside for the Italian
giants was hardly unexpected for a man charged with filling a huge void
left by departed coach Jose Mourinho.

“I expected this
behaviour tonight,” Benitez told reporters after following up Sunday’s
3-0 friendly win over big-spending Manchester City with a disappointing
display.

“There are going to be highs and lows because this is the beginning of the season.

“We played too long
and too wide and it was easy for them to play.” Inter won a domestic
double and the Champions League under Mourinho last season before the
Portuguese moved on to Spain’s Real Madrid but Benitez was quick to
point out that he has inherited a side he feels will challenge again
for more honours.

“We have the
opportunities to win trophies… a lot of them,” Benitez added. “That
is the challenge and I’m pleased to be in this situation and we will
try to win as much as we can.” Goals from Samuel Eto’o and Coutinho
gave the scoreline a flattering look but the absence of Mario Balotelli
for a second straight game, would suggest the young striker’s expected
move to Manchester City was imminent despite Benitez’s view of events.

“I have no news, everything is like it is before,” Benitez said when asked about the 19-year-old striker.

After a northern
hemisphere summer that has seen a parade of European teams march
through the city, Toronto appeared to be suffering from friendly
fatigue with a crowd of 17,169 sprinkled through the Rogers Centre on
hot, muggy evening.

Like Manchester
United, who passed through Toronto in July, Inter Milan is an
international sporting brand both teams using their North American
tours as much for marketing purposes as training.

After their
dismissal from the CAF Champions League, league champions, Enyimba of
Aba aim to compensate their fans by winning the Nigeria Premier League
(NPL) Super Four tourney.

The tournament,
which begins today, will be preceded by a meeting of the NPL board
members alongside some seminars and training programmes.

All four teams to participate in this year’s edition of the competition arrived in Ijebu Ode, venue of the tourney, on Monday.

According to the
fixtures released, Kwara United and Kano Pillars will play the opening
game while the league champions; Enyimba will confront Sunshine Stars
of Akure in the day’s other fixture.

Enyimba striker Phillip Auta boasted that he is sure his team will win the Super Four tournament.

Auta noted that
Enyimba is the best team in Nigeria and will surely confirm that after
the competition which comes to an end on Sunday.

“In spite of the
fact that we lost to Zanaco of Zambia in the Confederation Cup, I am so
confident that we are going to justify the confidence reposed in us by
our supporters by winning the Super Four.” After winning the double
last year, the Aba side wants to make history by winning it
consecutively. “We want to win every available trophy this season. We
have won the league, we are playing in the finals of the Federation Cup
and the Super Four will not be an exception”, added Auta.

“Nobody should
judge us with our ouster from the Confederation Cup. It is one of those
things and the loss will even motivate us to win all our matches during
the Super Four tournament. We are ready and other teams should watch
out for us,” Auta said.

For his part,
Babaginda Tukur, Chairman of Kano Pillars, said his team, though
depleted by injury, national assignment among other factors, will give
a good account of themselves at the competition as they will be going
all out to win the trophy and the prize money of five million naira,
which is up for grabs.

“Like every other
team going into a competition, we are in Ijebu Ode with the aim of
winning the trophy. Though some of our key players will be missing in
action, we will do our best” he said.

The club’s hit man,
Ahmed Musa is on assignment with the U-20 national team; the Flying
Eagles. Also ruled out is Solomon Okpako, who is away in Greece for
trials while defender Ablulahimi Hussien has been ruled out due to
injury.

Tough deal

However, former
Warri Wolves handler, Lawrence Akpokona says the Super Four will be
tough as all four teams are capable of taking the trophy home.

“It is not easy to
predict which team will win the tournament. This is because there are
several factors that come into play in this type of competition.

“Most of the teams
will not come with their full squad and some players will be at the
tournament because they are on trials. But all the teams are evenly
matched. So it is going to be very tough to predict who will win. But I
am sure everybody will enjoy the display of good football by all the
players,” added the seasoned coach.

“It is going to be a sort of football festival and any of the four teams can win the competition,” Akpokona concluded.

As the August 21
date for elections into the new board of the Nigeria Football
Federation (NFF) looms nearer, more calls are being made for the
dissolution of the electoral board. A candidate for the elections,
Aisha Folade, had last week called for the dissolution of the electoral
committee set up by the impeached President, Sani Lulu.

A more stringent
call has been made this around by Olajide Fashikun, Director, Sports
Development and Marketing, Nigeria Sports Development Incorporated, a
Nigerian sports marketing company based in Abuja. Fashikun, who is also
a former national athlete, wants the Abdulhakeem Mustapha-headed
electoral committee dissolved. He also wants the government agencies to
probe how the sum of N34million budgeted for an election with less than
a 100 delegates is to be spent. In a petition sent to the Presidency,
the Nigeria Sports Commission (NSC), NFF, EFFC, and other agencies,
Fashikun said: “The Chairman of the committee is a client of the NFF as
well as the personal lawyer of the impeached President, Lulu. He
defended the NFF Chairman in a suit at the start of his tenure that
challenged his election in 2006, ditto for the suit between Lulu and a
national newspaper, Daily Independent. It is morally wrong on this
ground for him to conduct an election involving the interest of his
client,” Fashikun wrote.

The former athlete
also alleged that Mustapha was one of the individuals sponsored by the
NFF to watch the World Cup in South Africa. “I have in my possession
official NFA documents that showed he was a member of the delegation.
The import here is obvious; he is already a biased umpire ab initio.
With the impeachment of his client, Lulu, it is not moral and
right-thinking for him to go ahead and preside over the same election
on the ground that he can be influenced to steer the ship of the
election in a pre-determined manner which will stain the final outcome
of the entire exercises.”

Fashikun also alleged that in a bid to perpetuate himself in power,
Lulu and other board members had worked out a well orchestrated plan to
beat all the 37 state Football Associations into line. The first,
according to him, was the alleged unwarranted and unearned N5million
Greek gift to each state football association as well as the
sponsorship of all State FA chairmen to Angola last January as well as
to the 2010 World Cup. “Many of the FA chairmen have over-run their
tenure and they have been donated extensions until 2014,” he said. “I
therefore, wish to humbly call on the government advance your statutory
powers, investigate and accordingly undertake the investigation of
these facts and respond adequately in the defence of public interest
and the national interest.” This is another major challenge that
elections for the board of the NFF faces and there may be the need to
postpone the elections so that when it is finally held, it will be
credible and usher in a new dawn of football administrators in the
country.