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Germany have picked top spot in Group A and are through to the
quarter finals of the ongoing FIFA U-20 Women World Cup after a 4-1 thrashing
of France with Alexandra Popp grabbing a hat-trick . It was also the same score
line for the Brazilians in their Group B game against New Zealand but it wasn’t
enough to secure a place in the next round for the South Americans.

The Brazilians came into Tuesday’s game needing a win while
hoping North Korea would be victorious in their game against Sweden. The
Swede’s however defeated the North Koreans 3-2 in their encounter in Augsburg
to finish in first place in Group B with seven points, a point ahead of the
Asians.

Brazil’s elimination comes as a shock for the football world as
they were expected to go far in the tournament and possibly win it after making
it to the semi finals at three of the last four editions of the tournament.

But it wasn’t all bad news for South America as its other
representative Colombia are through to the quarter finals following their 3-0
drubbing of Costa Rica in Group A. The Colombians finished ahead of the French
on goals difference and will next come up against Sweden on Saturday in the
quarter finals.

Saturday will also see the Germans, tournament winners in 2004,
as well as bronze medal winners in 2002 and 2008, taking on the North Koreans.
And if they get to show on Saturday the same level of team work and
determination they had on display in Tuesday’s game against the French then the
North Koreans, who were losing finalists two years ago in Chile, may just be
saying goodbye to the World Cup.

Ruthless Germans

The Germans have so far scored a total of 11 goals in the
tournament and against the French, who finished fourth in 2008, had an
opportunity early on to shoot into the lead only for Marina Hegering to place
her penalty kick wide.

The miss didn’t however demoralise them as they deservedly shot
into the lead in the 10th minute when Popp popped in with a diving header. Popp
again came through in the 35th minute sending the ball over the head of
Laetitia Philippe, the French goal keeper before the introduction of Marina
Makanza at the beginning of the second half saw the French scoring when
following an explosive run from the right, the substitute saw her shot parried
onto the path of Pauline Crammer to give Les Bleuettes their only goal.

The French side sought an equaliser but what they got was a German counter
attack with Popp scoring on the rebound her sixth goal in three games. And she
would have made it a fourth one but for a save by the French keeper. However,
the Germans were not to be denied their fourth which came in the 73rd minute. A
pass from Kim Kulig to Dzsenifer Marozsan saw the fourth goal entering into the
net.

French police investigating a prostitution network questioned
soccer stars Franck Ribery and Karim Benzema in custody on Tuesday about the
alleged soliciting of sex with a minor, police said.

The police had postponed the hearings at the headquarters of the
Paris vice squad until after the World Cup, in which Ribery, a winger for
Bayern Munich, was part of France’s disastrous campaign.

Ribery was France’s most popular player before the World Cup
fiasco, in which France were eliminated in the first round without winning a
match, and he took part in a revolt by players who boycotted a training session
before their final game.

French media have suggested the players were clients of a
nightclub in Paris’s posh Champs-Elysees district that allegedly featured
escorts, including the under-18 girl at the centre of the affair.

Ribery was questioned in April about his ties with the boss of
an escort girls’ network, according to his lawyer. The player himself has made
no comment about the affair.

Real Madrid striker Benzema’s agent has previously told Reuters
his client had never been to that nightclub, and the player himself told French
television he had done nothing wrong.

The scandal, which gripped France ahead of the World Cup, took a
new twist in late April when the young woman at the centre of the case gave a
lengthy interview to Paris Match magazine, implicating several footballers and
denying being a prostitute.

France striker Sidney Govou, who has just moved from Lyon to
Panathinaikos of Greece, was also questioned by police in April about the
incident.

The Brazilian government announced measures on Monday to speed
up preparations to host the soccer World Cup in 2014, boosting spending and cutting
red tape for public works projects.

The move follows growing concern in recent weeks, including by
the soccer world governing body FIFA, that preparations for the sporting event
were seriously delayed.

The debate put the spotlight on numerous obstacles to investment
in Brazil’s fast-growing economy, and angered President Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva, who has been touting the tournament as an accomplishment of his
government ahead of October’s presidential election.

Brazil will also host the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
In a signing ceremony arranged at short notice, Lula pledged 5.5 billion reais
to revamp airports in the 12 cities that will host the soccer tournament. He
also lifted restrictions on the ability of cities to raise debt to pay for infrastructure
such as roads, stadiums and trains.

Lula, who called some of the concerns senseless, said the latest measures
would avoid problems Brazil had with funding the 2007 Pan-American Games in Rio
de Janeiro.

The federal government also donated real estate and earmarked 740 million
reais on Monday to allow seven cities, including Rio de Janeiro, to overhaul
their ports and facilitate docking of large cruise ships. “Certainly it will be
an alternative to the lack of hotels,” said Pedro Brito, the ports minister.

Lula blamed the Sao Paulo state government, which until April was run by the
opposition presidential candidate Jose Serra, for failing to provide an
adequate stadium to host the World Cup. “Frankly, I can’t imagine a World Cup
in Brazil without Sao Paulo as one of the corners for athletes to play ball,”
Lula said during the ceremony in the capital Brasilia.

Super Eagles defender Taye Taiwo is close to completing a switch
from French champions Olympique Marseille to Atletico Madrid, according to the
BBC.

The Nigerian left-back, who has been tipped to move away from
Marseille in search of first team football, after he lost his place in the
Marseille side when Argentina international Gabriel Heinze was shifted from
centre half to full back towards the end of last season, is expected to
finalise the deal on Wednesday.

The news arrived hours after Marseille’s president Jean-Claude
Dassier was quoted in The Daily Mail saying that Taiwo will remain with the
club till the end of the season regardless of whether he decides to renew his
contract, which runs out at the end of the season, with the Frenchside.

But the BBC in its report said the Nigerian is on the verge of
joining the Europa League champions who had earlier had a £4.2 million bidfor
Taiwo rejected by Marseille.

Close to completion

According to the player’s agent Michael Coker, only minor
details between both clubs need to be sorted out.

“I’m presently in Madrid now and everything is almost done,”
Coker told the BBC on Tuesday.

“I have been in a long meeting with the club director [Jesus
Pitarch], and they are excited knowing everything is almost sorted out.

“We had little challenges at some point but right now everything
is back on track with the player and clubs involved.”

The 25-year-old joined Olympique Marseille from Nigerian side
Lobi Stars in 2004 and was a regular at the club until last season.

He won the French double with Marseille last season.

Liverpool and Tottenham were also interested in Taiwo and last
week he declared his desire to join the London based Tottenham to boost his
chances of regular first team football.

Success story

Atletico Madrid, who goes by the nickname Los Colchoneros or The
Mattress Makers due to their first team stripes being the same colors as
old-fashioned mattresses, is one of the most successful clubs in Spain, having
won both the league and cup on nine occasions, including a double in 1996.

The club also won the old European Cup Winners Cup in 1962, and in May this
year ended their 48-year wait for continental honours by defeating Fulham 2-1
in the Europa League final in Hamburg.

Reports suggesting that Minister of Sports, Ibrahim Bio, has
disqualified ex-international Segun Odegbami from contesting election into the
board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) have been described as untrue.

Olukayode Thomas, Media Consultant to the minister, said such
reports were fabricated by individuals seeking to put the minister and Odegbami
on a collision path. “There is no iota of truth in the story, the minister did
not issue such directive,” he said.

“It is the imagination of some people who want to cause
confusion or disrupt the election. Odegbami, and other member of the Task Force
who have signified their intention to contest in the coming election, are
Nigerians who have every right to contest any position in the country, and Bio
will not deny them of their rights to contest elections into the board of NFF
or any elective position they want to contest for in future.”

Thomas went on to explain that the minister is interested in having
credible, transparent, free and fair elections that will produce a board that
every Nigerian will be proud of.

“Bio is not backing any candidate, and he has vowed not to back any, but
like most Nigerians, he wants on the new NFF board eminent Nigerians who will
run football like business, so that the sport will be less dependent on
government for funding in the nearest future,” he said. “Bio strongly believes
that football can fund itself once we have a credible board.”

The NFF elections have been slated for August with several candidates
already in the race to direct the affairs of Nigerian football for the next
four years.

As the national
U-20 team, the Flying Eagles get set for their African Youth
Championship qualifying match against Guinea’s U-20 side this Saturday,
President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Aminu Maigari, has called
on Nigerians to turn out en-masse at the National Stadium, Abuja, to
cheer the team to victory.

Aside games
involving the Super Eagles, Abuja residents rarely throng the stadium
when other national teams are playing with many always complaining
about the location of the stadium which is outside the city centre.
They have also complained about the high gate fees and the NFF has as a
result fixed the price at N100 and N200 so as to allow as many
Nigerians as possible to turn out for the match which is the first on
the road for the Flying Eagles as they seek for place in the FIFA U-20
World Cup finals coming up in Colombia next year. The Flying Eagles
have been training in Abuja ahead of the game and according to Maigari,
only need good support from the stands to overcome their opponents in
the crunch game.

“The team has
trained very well and I can tell Nigerians that this team is ready for
the match,” he said. “The technical crew has been doing great work. But
we are appealing to Nigerians to come to the Stadium in large numbers
on Saturday and give the team support. I spoke to the players and they
said they are ready for the battle, and that all they just want to see
are people cheering them from the stands. We believe that our people
will turn out in their numbers to come and support the team.”

From Eaglets to Flying Eagles

The bulk of the
Flying Eagles consists of the Golden Eaglets that finished as
runners-up at last year’s FIFA U-17 World Cup hosted by Nigeria. The
team’s coach John Obuh has since then led his boys to victories in two
different Four-Nation Invitational Tournaments in South Africa and
Egypt. “This is a match we must approach with all seriousness. I have
had reports on the Guinean team and I know they are good,” said Obuh,
whose assistant Abimbola Samuel was sent to watch the Guineans’
preliminary round qualification fixture against Togo in Lome and
Conakry. Already in the country are the match officials for the game
who arrived from Burkina Faso on Wednesday while the match commissioner
Laryea Louis is expected to fly in from Ghana on Thursday.

It seems Aiyegbeni
Yakubu and Sani Kaita have not been forgiven for their respective roles
in the Super Eagles’ failure to advance beyond the group stage of the
last World Cup tournament in South Africa, as they have both been left
out of the national team’s upcoming international friendly against
South Korea.

Yakubu generally
had a poor tournament in South Africa, and fell from the spotlight
after fluffing a gilt-edged chance in the Super Eagles 2-2 draw against
South Korea while Kaita, for his part, incurred the wrath of Nigerian
football fans after getting sent off in the 2-1 defeat to Greece.

Also left out of
the encounter scheduled to take place in the South Korean capital,
Seoul on August 11 was Joseph Yobo, who skippered the Super Eagles in
their opening two games of the World Cup, and the legendary Nwankwo
Kanu, who recently denied reports that he had called it quits with
international football.

Unlucky 13

In all, 13 players
from the South Africa World Cup 2010 squad were excluded from the
35-man squad named for the friendly against the Taeguk Warriors, but
there was a place for goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama, who had a remarkable
tournament, and nine other survivors of the World Cup squad.

They are Haruna
Lukman, Dickson Etuhu, Danny Shittu, Obafemi Martins, Danny Shittu,
Obinna Nsofor, Kalu Uche, Ayodele Adeleye and Uwa Echiejile.

John Obi Mikel, who
missed out on the World Cup with an injury, was recalled along with Ike
Uche, whose chances of playing at the World Cup were not helped by the
fact that he only returned from a long injury-induced layoff a few
weeks before the commencement of the tournament. Also recalled was
Joseph Akpala, as well as Lobi Stars of Makurdi full-back Terna Suswan,
who was one of the last players to be dropped from the World Cup bound
squad by the team’s technical crew. Suswan tops the list of 22 players
invited from the Nigerian Premier League which also includes Kano
Pillars’ Ahmed Musa, who scored a record 18 goals this season, and who
featured for the Super Eagles at the last WAFU Nations Cup hosted in
Nigeria. Also invited was goalkeeper Bassey Akpan, Solomon Okpako,
Gbolahan Salami and King Osanga.

All the players from the domestic league are expected to arrive in Abuja on Friday.

After a nail-biting
final ten minutes, Nigeria’s U-20 female national team drew 1-1 with
their opponents from Mexico to qualify for the quarter finals. The
Falconets have now made it to the quarter finals for the fourth time
since the inception of the age-grade tournament in 2002.

The Nigerian team
started very well and got their just reward when Ebere Orji scored the
opener in the 13th minute. Orji had made two assists in previous
matches. The sequence of events that led to the goal was fortuitous, to
say the least.

Mexican keeper,
Cecilia Santiago, mishandled a lame shot from Amarachi Okoronkwo to
give the Falconets a corner kick in the 12th minute. The resultant kick
was knocked back across the goal by Esther Sunday, and Orji gratefully
tucked the cross into an empty net.

Orji almost doubled
the lead in the 22nd minute when her speculative cross helped by
Jabulani’s flight completely fooled Santiago, but the cross bar saved
the Mexican goal tender’s blushes.

Another three-woman move in the 27th minute created a shooting opportunity for Amarachi Okoronkwo, but she shot wide.

At that point, it
was complete control by the Nigerian team with the duo of Martina
Ohadugha and Amarachi Okoronkwo marshalling the midfield with Alaba
Jonathan, Falconets goalkeeper, virtually on holiday.

Mexico resurgent

That scenario
changed in the second half as the Mexcan coach, Roberto Medina, made
changes to chase the equaliser. At the beginning of the second half,
Japan were leading England 1-0 and any further goal by the opposition
would have relegated them out of the competition.

Another reason for the increased pressure on the Nigerian team may have been the removal of the goal scorer, Ebere Orji.

Her replacement,
Ngozi Ebere, was however, replaced 22 minutes later by Uchechi Sunday,
as Coach Adat Egan continued to tinker his team. At this point, James
Peters, assistant secretary general (Technical), was the cynosure of
all eyes as he apparently took over the coach’s job. He was parading
the technical zone, shouting and gesticulating at the players, and the
girls must have begun to wonder if Egan had been sacked from the bench.

The Mexican team
continued to press and finally the pressure paid off. In the 75th
minute, Osinachi Ohale needlessly conceded a corner kick when she had
time to make a back-pass to her goalkeeper.

There followed a
sequence of three corner kicks. After missed clearances in the Nigerian
box, Alina Garciamendez smashed an unstoppable volley into the top
right-hand corner.

Nigeria then had to hang on as news filtered in that Japan had
beaten England 3-1. The two teams finally settled for the 1-1 draw that
saw them qualify for the quarter final to face teams from Group D on
Sunday in either Augsburg or Dresden.

With the World Cup
fever well and truly over (my daughter was the first to declare how
happy she is at having her mother back), transfer news across various
European clubs is now the main activity guaranteed to give the
obligatory dose of football.

Having previously
intended to jot down my thoughts on the transfer excitement, and
perhaps elicit some more sympathy from readers as the long wait for the
start of the European football season continues, I’ve had to do a
complete about-turn. Reading through the sports pages in NEXT, I came
across the story of the female under-20 football team, the Falconets.
The main thrust of the article was about the disparity in match bonuses
in female soccer. The Falconets are currently playing in the FIFA
Women’s U-20 World Cup being held in Germany and have drawn their first
game (coming from behind to do this) and won the second.. It was
therefore more than a little surprising to read that the match bonus
for winning is a measly $500.

Now don’t get me
wrong, playing for your national team is not about making money. It
should be for the pride and fulfilment each player feels at
representing the nation; apparently the Super Eagles were offered
$30,000 for winning a match in the just concluded World Cup. On the
side of football administration, this speaks volumes about the attitude
to female football. Correct me if I’m wrong, but as far as the last
census reported, the ratio of male to female in the population is
approximately 1:1. It is therefore just as likely that as many young
girls as boys will be interested in going into sports. Is this the
NFF’s way of encouraging young girls who want a career in football? Is
this Nigeria’s way of encouraging girls who want to carve out a
sporting career? How ironic that Nigeria’s first Olympic gold medal was
won by a woman, Chioma Ajunwa.

Encouraging the ladies

Every day there are
reports about the rot in Nigerian football, with very little changing
as the years go by. This just adds to the whole sorry tale. This
disparity between men and women’s football cannot be justified. There’s
been an obscene amount spent on the Super Eagles’ World Cup campaign,
with unfortunately absolutely nothing to show for it. It has been said
that football is traditionally a men’s sport and it would be hard for
women to break into it or to gain the same following. The fact that
some have obviously done so puts paid to that. If against the odds, the
Falconets can continue to qualify for the World Cup and more often than
not, make it into the knockout stages, surely they ought to be
encouraged. Who could blame them if they decide to adopt new
nationalities for the purpose of better exposure, training and medical
facilities? We have to ask questions of the NFF and what they plan to
do to change the current state of affairs in female football.

Speaking of the NFF, the executive committee only has one female
member, as shown on their website. The only other female listed is the
Head of Administration. It would be hard to convince anyone that the
Head of Administration is the change agent needed to build female
football in Nigeria. And change is what is desperately needed: the
contribution that women players make to the game has to be recognised
and more support needs to be given to the game. Attitudes need to
change. With more support, the game can improve and followership will
also improve. In the meantime, we continue to cheer our Falconets on to
greater glory.

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.