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Former
captain of Nigeria’s national team, the Super Eagles and newly
appointed football ambassador, Nwankwo Kanu, says he has no reason to
regret his decision to call it quits with the Super Eagles even though
the team seems to have found a new rhythm under new coach, Samson
Siasia.

Kanu, who was at
the Abuja National Stadium to watch the Eagles play both the Ethiopian
national team and the Harambee Stars praised the new spirit in the team
but concluded that he has done his part and thus has to move on.

“No, I don’t think
the timing was wrong” he said. “I have served the country the best way
I can and I have to give others the chance to prove themselves. Nobody
knew I could go this long after my heart problem but I thank God and
all the fans for supporting me all through”.

Kanu’s last
assignment for the Eagles was at the South Africa 2010 World Cup where
the team failed to make it beyond the first round of the tourney thus
capping a series of woeful performances by the team.

Nevertheless, with
a career spanning over 17 years, Kanu declared that he is a fulfilled
man and is only looking forward to his testimonial match in Lagos to
officially end his international football career.

Testimonial match

The testimonial
match between Kanu and Friends (a selected World XI) and the Nigerian
national team has been tentatively slated for June 11, 2011 in Lagos.

Kanu’s friends,
mostly his former teammates from Ajax, Inter Milan, Arsenal, West Brom
and Portsmouth along with some selected star players are expected to
face a Nigerian All Star team dating from the Super Eagles teams of
1993/94, the Olympic Gold medal winning team of 1996, and some players
of the current Eagles squad who played with Kanu.

Among the notable
soccer stars who are expected to grace the event are Patrick Vieira,
Ronaldo, Samuel Eto’o and Emmanuel Adebayor amongst others.

“It is going to be
a great day and event, everybody will be there and it’s going to be a
roll-call of the world’s best players, a roll-call of ‘who is who in
world football,” he said.

Proceeds from the
event according to Kanu will be channelled to his charity organisation,
the Kanu Heart Foundation (KHF) that is currently planning to build a
heart specialist hospital in Abuja.

Though not clear on
whether he is ready to take up any coaching role in any of the national
teams, Kanu gave kudos to Siasia for the good work done so far, which
has seen him winning three matches in a row.

Siasia got off to a winning start last month by beating Sierra Leone
2-1 in a friendly, before his team thrashed Ethiopia 4-0 in a crucial
Nations Cup qualifier on Sunday and capping it up with a 3-0 victory
over Kenya in friendly match on Tuesday night.

The
23rd Nigeria University Games Association (NUGA), UNIBEN 2011 may have
come and gone but the memory of it will linger on for a long time in
the minds of many people as it brought notable changes in their
financial status.

Five days after the games ended, a lot of traders in Benin City are still counting the gains they made at the games.

While the games
lasted, traders took advantage of the influx of athletes, officials and
visitors to two campuses of the university, to engage in lucrative
businesses.

Articles ranging
from foods, clothes, shoes, educational items, herbal medicines,
recharge cards, sachet water and a variety of other household goods
were displayed and sold at the two campuses of UNIBEN; , Ugbowo and
Ekehuan.

Yakubu, who
operated a shop where he branded T-shirts for those who desired them,
said business was good while the games lasted. According to him, he
charged N200 to brand T-shirts that attracted N100 before the games.

“The students were still happy to pay the increased fee. I wish the games never ended,” he said.

Addoh Endurance, a
supervisor at the UNIBEN Integrated Stand, an eatery outfit owned by
the University of Benin, told NEXT that sales during the games were “so
encouraging that the school authority had to set up another stand by
the entrance of the sports complex.”

A fruit seller who gave his name simply as Adamu revealed that he sold more than two wheelbarrow loads of watermelon per day.

Good business

Among the traders
at the Ugbowo campus of UNIBEN was a trader one would hardly expect to
meet at the games. Joke Odunusi who sold herbal medicine came all the
way from Ijebu Ode to sell her products. And according to her, “the
patronage was surprisingly high, she said. “I even had to send word to
my husband at home to send some of the herbs the students were
demanding, like medicine for “man power”( libido enhancing drug),
sexually transmitted infections and some other strange ailments. I wish
NUGA games will be held here every year, sales have never been this
good for me,” she told NEXTSports.

Pay phone operators
also smiled to the bank as they were kept busy from morning till night.
Sales of recharge cards, they said were more than triple of the normal
day sales. Telecommunications companies also took advantage of the
games to advertise some of their products to prospective customers with
commercial vehicle operators within and outside both campuses kept busy
from dawn till dusk, moving commuters, who were never short of places
to visit.

Trading at both the
Ugbowo and Ekehuan campuses however, came at a price. Faith, an
indigene of Agbor who sold sachet water (popularly known as pure water)
at the sports complex said the university authorities charged each
hawker of sachet water and recharge cards, N1,000 for the registration
form, which they paid into a designated bank account, N3,000 for
trading permit and N450 for identification badge, which they had to
hang on their necks bringing the total amount they paid to the school
to N4,450.00. She added that those who operated from make-shift shops
however paid more.

Spain’s
league programme will go ahead this weekend after a Madrid court upheld
a challenge from six breakaway clubs and blocked the threatened strike
action by the professional football league (LFP).

“The court decides
the official calendar for the first and second divisions should remain
unaltered for the next round of matches,” a statement from the court
said on Wednesday.

The LFP, which had
also suffered the resignation of its vice-president late on Tuesday,
accepted the judge’s ruling and immediately issued the kickoff times
for this weekend’s matches.

“Despite the
internal discrepancies at the heart of the LFP over the measures
adopted at the assembly on February 11, all the clubs that make up the
league continue to press their demands on the government,” the LFP said
in a statement.

“From this point
on, a new route map will be established that will allow us to unblock
the conversations in our search for solutions to the grievances of
professional football.” The managing director of Villarreal, one of the
six “rebel” clubs along with Sevilla, Real Sociedad, Espanyol, Athletic
Bilbao and Real Zaragoza, said he was relieved.

“A strike would have been a stab in the heart for football,” Jose Manuel Llaneza told Radio Marca.

The LFP had voted
last month to suspend matchday 30 unless the government scrapped a rule
that one La Liga game per matchday should be shown on freeview
television.

Much progress

Last week, as talks
with the government failed to make much progress, six clubs known as
the G-6 broke ranks and mounted a legal challenge to the LFP’s decision.

The league argues
that removing the obligation to show one match for free would
strengthen clubs’ bargaining power in negotiations on audiovisual
rights with media firms. The league also wants guarantees about how
much cash clubs are entitled to receive from betting and lottery
revenue.

The breakaway clubs
argued that a strike would be “disproportionate, inopportune, against
the interest of clubs, the competition and supporters and, what’s more,
against the law”.

A postponement
could have seen the end of La Liga pushed back three weeks to the
weekend of June 11/12 due to the hectic competition schedule over April
and May.

This weekend’s matches include leaders Barcelona at Villarreal and
second-placed Real Madrid at home to Sporting Gijon, both on Saturday

Michael
Clarke, long the heir apparent to Ricky Ponting, finally assumed the
throne when he was named Australia’s 43rd test captain on Wednesday, a
day after his mentor quit the post.

The 29-year-old
will also take charge of the one-day side, which plays three matches in
Bangladesh next month. All rounder Shane Watson was appointed the new
vice-captain of the test and one-day teams.

“I just want to say
what a honour it is to be named captain of Australia and a huge
surprise to see Ricky stand down,” Clarke told a news conference at the
Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).

Clarke, who turns
30 this weekend, begins the job with Australian cricket at its lowest
ebb since the mid-1980s, ranked fifth in the world in tests and still
smarting from a home Ashes drubbing and a quarter-final exit at the
World Cup.

“The key for me is we go back to old-fashioned basics.

That’s batting, bowling and fielding,” he said. “I’m not going to reinvent the wheel.

“We want to become the number one ranked team in all forms and that’s going to take a long time,” he added.

If newspaper and
website polls are to be believed, Clarke’s appointment was not welcomed
by a lot of fans, many of whom take exception to his transformation
from a working class boy from Sydney’s western suburbs into a celebrity.

Keen tweeter

The tattoos, top of
the range BMW, glamorous apartment in the beach side Sydney suburb of
Bondi and celebrity girlfriends make him a very different captain from
his 42 predecessors.

Also a keen
tweeter, it was via his Twitter page (twitter.com/MClarke23) that
Clarke apologised for not walking when given out during the Ashes
defeat in Adelaide in December.

“My address has
changed and I’ve got a few more tattoos than when I was a kid, but the
person inside is exactly the same,” he said.

“I need to be
continue to be true to myself, people will have their own opinions,” he
added. “I certainly don’t believe I can get the whole of this country
to like me.

“For me it’s about
earning the respect of the doubters by leading the team in the right
way and playing cricket in the right way.”

Nicknamed Pup,
Clarke burst onto world cricket’s stage with 151 on his test debut in
Bangalore in 2004 and another century on his home debut against New
Zealand.

He averages 46.49 in 69 tests and 44.32 in 195 ODIs.

His form has dipped
over the last year, however, and he said he hoped the responsibility of
the captaincy would help him recapture his form.

I hope it helps,” he said. “I think that’s another thing that
Ricky’s taught me, to be leading from the front on the field is so
important.”

Asamoah
Gyan said he wasn’t sure what he was doing before scoring his stunning
equaliser for Ghana against England at Wembley, but wished he could
have celebrated his “historic goal” with a dance afterwards.

The 25-year-old
striker, who moved to Sunderland after his outstanding performances for
Ghana in last year’s World Cup, struck in stoppage time to give his
side a richly-deserved 1-1 draw.

Collecting the ball
on the edge of the penalty area he jinked one way and another, dummied
England defender Joleon Lescott twice then curled a left-foot shot into
the far corner of Joe Hart’s net.

Gyan will always be
remembered for missing the penalty against Uruguay that would have
taken Ghana into the semi-finals of the World Cup but now also has his
country’s first goal against England on his soccer CV.

“I am happy because it’s an important goal for the country and for the fans,” he told reporters.

“I was twisting and turning, but honestly, I didn’t know what I was doing, I was just trying to protect the ball.

“The English
defenders are very intelligent, but they did not know if I was going to
pass the ball, but I thought, well they might push me down, but they
didn’t do that, so I thought, I’ve got a chance, so I took my chance.”
“This goal is something historic – it’s the first goal we’ve scored
against England.

“64 million dollar goal”

Asked if this was
the “64 million dollar goal” that will make Europe’s big teams sit up
and take notice of him, he replied: “No, I am a player at Sunderland, I
am just concentrating on that. I am very young, I have lots more to do
in football, so I am just working hard.”

“I just wanted to
dance after scoring it, the atmosphere was wild- I didn’t get the
chance to dance because suddenly everyone else was on top of me, but
maybe I will next time.” The goal gave Ghana a deserved draw in a
superb match in which England coach Fabio Capello made seven changes
from the side that beat Wales 2-0 in a Euro qualifier on Saturday,
giving debuts to second-half substitutes Matt Jarvis and Danny Welbeck
and a first start to Gary Cahill after two substitute appearances.

The Italian said that despite giving up the late equaliser he was delighted with his team’s performance.

“I’m really happy because I saw a fantastic game, not a friendly game,” he said.

“Every tackle was a
fight, the players played very well, the players that played not a lot
of games here, the new players, played well.

“It was interesting
for me to know the value of these players when they need to play here
at Wembley, in the senior shirt. All the players played really really
good.” England took the lead after 43 minutes when Andy Carroll scored
his first goal for his country with a fierce, low left-foot drive that
flew into Richard Kingson’s net.

Capello said he was
delighted for the 21-year-old that he found the net because he was not
yet fully fit after recovering from a thigh injury that delayed his
Liverpool debut by several weeks.

“I remember Carroll before he suffered the injury problems. He’s the
same player, runs a lot, always fight, he needs games and I am
delighted he scored tonight.”

The
Nigeria Football Federation, says it has not in any way acted wrongly in
the matter of the proposed friendly match between the Super Eagles and
the Argentine national team.

The acting general
secretary of the federation, Musa Ahmadu, said on Monday in Abuja that
the claim by Belgium-based Nigerian match agent, Julius Owen Ighodaro
that the federation ‘betrayed’ him by giving the right to negotiate the
match to another agent after he had opened discussions with them was
untrue.

Ahmadu said though
the federation issued Ighodaro a letter of mandate to discuss the
possibility of such a match, the agent had long come back to the
federation to say it was not possible.

Ighodaro had at the weekend accused the federation of unfair practice noting that:

“I have been on that
game for three months now with three other agents. World Eleven gave
exclusive right to one Justin Ado who sold the idea to them that
Argentina can train in Africa to prepare for Copa America Nations Cup
And Justin contacted one Nouma Pierre, a Cameroonian, who contacted me. I
brought the game to NFF (Federation) on platter of Gold and we had been
negotiating only for the NFF to push me aside at the last minute and
give it to their agent and wrapped things up with Guinness.

“I have three
letters from NFF the last one dated 14th February, which they accepted
to play and requested I send a contract which I did and they promised to
study it. And they betrayed me and gave the game to their agent.”

No deal

Responding yesterday to the allegation, Ahmadu said:

“It is true we
issued Ighodaro a letter of mandate to discuss with Argentina, after he
came to us to claim that Argentina would be on a tour of Africa and that
he could get them to play the Super Eagles. We therefore issued him the
letter of mandate to see how this could be done. However, Ighodaro
later came back to inform us that Argentina would no longer be willing
to play Nigeria. At this point, we duly considered the matter dead and
buried.

“Afterwards, our
sponsors, Guinness came to us with valid papers that they had the
consent of Argentina and we signed the papers. Everybody is happy about
what Guinness has been able to do and the game would definitely go ahead
on Wednesday, 1st June, 2011.

“The letter of
mandate is something that we had given to a number of people in the
past, to discuss on our behalf with willing Federations for the
possibility of friendly games. We had issued the same Ighodaro a similar
mandate to discuss with Gabon on the possibility of bringing that
country’s national team here for an international friendly against the
Super Eagles on 29th March, 2011 and he was unable to pull it off.

“The mandate we
signed with Ighodaro was a one-off thing, and at no time did we sign any
contract with him concerning the match. We are therefore not
contractually liable or committed to him or any of his collaborators.

Ahmadu said the football federation is now extremely careful about
the kind of people we have relationship with concerning organisation of
matches.

Tiger Woods put
himself into ‘Masters mode’ on Sunday, ending weeks of introspective
analysis to state confidently and simply that he can win the U.S.
Masters for a fifth time next month.

Woods shot an
even-par 72 in the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay
Hill to end the week one under and well behind the leaders.

The numbers were not
great but Woods was happy with his hitting throughout a round which was
damaged by a bogey on the 17th and then a double bogey on the final
hole where he found water.

Afterwards, before
signing autographs with a crowd of enthusiastic fans, Woods was asked
about his driving, his putting and his comfort level.

The 14-times major
winner has been willing to share his problems of late but this time the
message was that he was getting better in all those areas and that
crucially, for those who wonder whether he still has that formidable
confidence, he had no doubt about whether he can triumph at Augusta.

Woods had a simple
one word answer to the question of whether he can win, staring the
reporter in the eye as he delivered it: “Absolutely”.

It was old school
Tiger, a sign that with just over a week to prepare for the Masters he
is now in the zone – no longer focusing on the doubts and what he has
called ‘the process”.

Good week

“It was a very good
week and a week I need to see. I really hit the ball well and the things
that we have been working on for the last couple of weeks, really,
really felt comfortable today, I felt I was able to control just about
every shot today,” he told reporters.

His driving? “Much
better. Every day has gotten a little bit tighter which is good. I have
to keep working, keep staying the course, each day is progressing. Today
was really nice,” he said.

“I need to keep
progressing and hopefully it will peak two more Thursdays from now.
Early in the year was disappointing because the conditions showed some
signs of weakness that I had to work on – now it’s feeling very, very
good”.

That positive talk was however against the backdrop to a messy end to his round.

“I played well all
day and the best shot I hit was on 17th but it didn’t come out. On 18 I
was caught between clubs, went with the lower one and didn’t luck out.

“I hit three water
balls this week and had a few missed putts here and there and I’m not
that far behind. Add all that together, you can’t afford to make those
mistakes”.

Woods is not playing next week’s tour event in Houston, instead he heads early to Augusta to start practice.

Last year, Woods went into Augusta without playing any tour events and finished tied fourth.

“It is nice to have
some tournaments under my belt and be more in tournament shape going in.
They have made a couple of changes at Augusta. I’ll take a look at
those and develop a game plan,” he said.

It is game on now
for Woods and the golfing world will be watching eagerly to see whether
there really is substance to his renewed swagger.

Courage House at the weekend emerged winners of the 6th edition of PrimeRose (Montessori) School Inter-House Sports competition hosted at the Anthony Village Recreational Centre in Lagos.

The house with the blue colour chalked up ten gold, five silver and four Bronze medals in a keenly contested competition with over 21 individual and team events.

They were closely followed by Integrity House with seven gold, five silver and six bronze medals, while Love House finished in third place with five gold, four silver and three bronze medals. Peace House placed fourth chalking up two gold, five silver and four bronze medals respectively.

Best athletes

The event saw Adesanya Dolapo of Courage House and Jubril Somide of Peace House emerging best female and male athletes of the school.

Dolapo coasted home to victory in 100m competition while Ada Egbuta of Integrity House won the Lime and Spoon girls’ race.

In the Getting Ready for School competition, Olapade Tamilore of Love House and Okolo Chitoo of Integrity House won in the boys and girls categories respectively.

In the Picking the Ball event, Ireyomi Makinde of Integrity House emerged victorious, while Joy Mkemakolam of Courage House won the girls ‘Filling the Bottle’ contest with Gbadebo Mosope of Peace House winning the Sack Race.

In the fashion parade event, Okolo Chitoo and Okogwu Gift of Integrity House became the new 2011 Queen and Princes of PrimeRose (Montessori) School.

Speaking after the event, Oluremi Joseph, proprietress of the school said:

“We are delighted at the huge turnout of our parents and guardians to encourage our wards in this year’s edition of the Inter-House Sports Competition. This will surely ginger the children to do well and create a good sporting culture in them as they grow up in our institutions of learning”.

For her part, Sabiba Ntiense-Williams, head teacher of the school praised the Inter-House Sports Committee headed by Elugbindin for ensuring that the event got the necessary sponsorship and equipment.

Last
week, I travelled to Simawa, a fast-growing community, sandwiched
between the Redemption Camp, along the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway, Ikorodu
and Sagamu, learning how to mould red bricks. Simawa is completely out
of sight, to the extent that once I drive in, I am absolutely cut off.
There is no Internet connectivity or mobile phone reception. There is no
vendor selling newspapers; that is a luxury and you have to travel to
either Sagamu, or Ikorodu, or the Redemption Camp to purchase one. So,
for almost two days, I was completely incommunicado.

On my return, my
editor called and asked if I have seen the comments made online, to my
column of Tuesday, March 22. My response was ‘not yet’, and he
encouraged me to do so. What I met as comments to the column – ‘Dove
Sports Golden Belt Boxing Tournament: Setting A Standard to Save
Nigerian Sports’, was not only intrinsically intriguing, it was also
exhilaratingly amusing.

Here they are, unedited.

HONESTMAN: “this is
tenderful mr Paul, we have missed your very simple but intelligent style
of writing. Only hope those kalokalos killing our sports will try
emulate what u have done. Well done paul.”

MARY: “now I agree that u abe MAD. People like you should be managing sports in Nigeria. God bless you.”

FRANKIE: “this is
difficult to believe, but if indeed you were able to set this standard,
then there is hope for sports in naija. Pls send this to Fashola and the
goons around him. Goodluck Jonathan must also know about this. Thank
you paul for putting smiles on faces of those young boxers”

OJO-ADE: “mr Bankole, u should be sports commissioner or minister. Well done sir and God bless.”

OBIORA-EZE: “they wont let people like you to become the minister of sports. Keep the good job Mr. Bankole”

My first reaction
was to laugh, rather intuitively and almost simultaneously, allow my
sense of imagination take a trip. Sports Minister of Nigeria? The next
thing I remember was saying repeatedly “dreams on a volcanic mountain”
and as if not sure of what I had just read, went through the comments
all over again. By the time I finished reading the second time, it
dawned on me that it was an issue to be addressed critically.

I am indeed very grateful to all the commentators. I thank you all,
but please allow me to humbly say that the state of Nigerian sports can
be likened to a volcanic mountain, waiting to erupt anytime from now.
And the cabal, who erroneously ASSume that they are in charge right now,
will suffer the consequences. Please, mark this statement very well.
Those toying with the greatest passion of Nigerians will pay very dearly
for it. It is just a matter of time. I do not therefore dream to align
with this set of misfits. All I am trying to do is contribute my
God-given quota towards genuine grassroots sports development in this
great nation. I simply want to be different, by putting what I write
about into action. I want to let Nigerians know and believe that this is
one of the greatest sporting nations in the entire world, endowed
naturally by the Lord God Almighty, with massive potentials to rule the
world of sports. And, this, we can achieve, nay, we will achieve, by
learning to do very simple things the perfect way. This is one of the
ways we can save Nigerian sports. No more, no less.

Under Samson Siasia there seems to be a revival of wing play by the Super Eagles and that means that the transition from midfield to attack will be faster and more direct.

The likes of Ahmed Musa and Victor Moses are very fast and skillful and are able to attack down both wings. There is also Osaze Odemwingie, who can also do the job of a winger.

Chukwuma Akuneto, a former Nigerian international and presently first team coach at English league outfit, FC United believes, there are no easy games in today’s football.

Akuneto proposes that, the Eagles have to monopolise ball possession.

“Repossession of the ball will be very important and we need to play high and wide – either with three strikers or two wingers.

“The Eagles have an array of players who are exceptional going forward so we need to win possession back and let them go and destroy the opposition. What this means is that we can’t wait for them to lose possession but we go get the ball or make them lose it by applying pressure.”

He also added that the defensive players must push high up the pitch to congest the play in the Ethiopian half.

“We must press with a high line in front – the attackers have to put pressure on their defenders so we can win the ball back closer to their goal or they decide to just launch the ball into our half of the pitch thereby conceding possession,” Akuneto added.

But there are dangers of pressing that high like Barcelona does and he advises that the Super Eagles defenders must concentrate a hundred per cent to ward off counter attacks, which may be the strategy of the East Africans.

“The Concentration of our defenders, including the defensive midfielder and goalkeeper becomes very crucial in this game because we don’t want to be caught out by the long ball over the top or by a counter attack.

“We want to win the ball back close to their goal and allow our creative and penetrative players go do the business and more importantly we want to make them feel in constant danger like a team under constant threat and attack – a sort of psychological battering,” Akuneto concluded.