Nigeria Content Online

In the last match before Alex Ferguson begins a five-match
touch-line ban, the league leaders will have to cope without some first team players.
Captain Nemanja Vidic will have to undergo a late fitness test before being
pronounced available or otherwise for the lesser Manchester derby on Saturday.

United have lost the last two league matches: 2-1 away to
Chelsea followed by a 3-1 loss to Liverpool. They have not lost three Premier
league games in a row since December 2001 but are especially thin at the back.
Players like Rio Ferdinand, Vidic, Johnny Evans, John O’Shea and Rafael are all
doubtful. Paul Scholes leads the absentees in midfield due to suspension and is
joined by Anderson and Ji-Sung Park, both out due to injuries. Darren Fletcher
is also out with a virus. However, Park and Evans could return for Saturday’s
match.

The Red Devils have since won two matches on the trot after the
disappointments in the league: a 2-0 win over Arsenal in the FA Cup, followed
by a 2-1 victory over Olympique Marseille in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Bolton are unbeaten in their last six matches in all competitions
but they have won just one of their last 16 Premier League games against
Manchester United. New manager, Owen Coyle has added a new playing mentality
plus a player like Daniel Sturridge, who has scored four goals in the last five
matches for the team. However, United are still overwhelming favourites for the
three points to keep up their chase for a 19th league title.

Arsenal needs revenge

After West Bromwich knocked the stuffing out of the Gunners in
September with a 3-2 shock win, most of the blame was heaped on Arsenal goal
keeper, Manuel Almunia, and that led to him losing the spot, first to Lukasz
Fabianski and then Wojciech Szczesny.. However, fate has dealt the Spaniard
another hand, where he is the only fit senior keeper to face the Baggies on
Saturday. The question is then that will Almunia redeem himself?

This was also the game that Nigerian striker, Osaze Odemwingie,
showed off all his attacking acumen; getting a penalty and also a goal.
Interestingly, at a point in the match, West Bromwich Albion led 3-0. Samir
Nasri scored a late double for Arsenal, but it could have been worse for the
Gunners after Brunt had a first-half penalty saved and at the end of the match,
West Brom looked like contenders for the league title.

But six months is a long time in football, West Brom have had to sack
Roberto Di Matteo and install Roy Hodgson to forestall relegation while Arsenal
have been dumped out of three competitions in 13 days. Meanwhile Gunners
defender Thomas Vermaelen will miss the rest of the season. The Belgian had
been sidelined since September after picking up an Achilles injury while Jens
Lehmann will sign for Arsenal for the rest of the season, manager Arsene Wenger
revealed on the club website.

The proposed international friendly match between Nigeria’s
Super Eagles and the Chipolopolo of Zambia will no longer hold as scheduled.

The game had been scheduled to take place in Abuja, at the
National Stadium, on March 29, two days after the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations
qualifier between the Super Eagles and the Antelopes of Ethiopia. As the March
29 date is a day set aside by football’s world governing body FIFA for
international friendly matches, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) was
hoping to keep the Super Eagles busy by securing a game against another
national team.

The Zambians were approached and media reports suggested that a
deal had been agreed upon by both the NFF and the Football Association of
Zambia (FAZ). However, the game will no longer come up on March 29 as the
Zambian federation cannot guarantee that they will have a full strength squad
for the game in Abuja. This is because, two days before the proposed game
against the Super Eagles, the Chipolopolo will, like their Nigerian
counterparts, also be involved in a 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier
against the Mambas of Mozambique.

And as no notification of a game between Zambia and Nigeria had
been given to the club sides of Zambia’s foreign based entourage prior to their
release for their March 27 qualifier against the Mozambicans, it would be
difficult for the FAZ to raise a team for the proposed friendly.

Their reason

“Please note that the Zambia National Team will be playing an
Africa Cup of Nations match against Mozambique on 27th March, 2011 at the
Machava Stadium in Maputo,” said George Kasengele, the General Secretary of the
FAZ. “We had received a request for the match with the Nigerian Super Eagles
through a match agent but have not yet confirmed this with him. Apparently all
our professional players will be required to return to their respective bases
after the game against Mozambique. In light of this we are unlikely to raise a
strong team to play the Super Eagles on that date.”

Kasengele, nevertheless, expressed the Zambian national team’s
readiness to engage the Super Eagles on any other FIFA approved match date
other than March 29. For their part, the NFF expressed regret over the
unavailability of the Zambians but remained optimistic about their chances of
finding a suitable opponent to pit against the Super Eagles on March 29. “We
have been informed about the development and it’s quite unfortunate as they
would have been a good test for the Super Eagles,” said Ademola Olajire, the
federation’s media officer. “But the NFF will do everything to get a suitable
opponent for the Super Eagles. We have a few countries in mind and once a deal
is concluded we will make it public.”

He, however, refused to divulge the names of the countries the NFF are
lining up as potential opponents of the Super Eagles come March 29, but a
source within the football body confirmed that arrangements are being made to
get a date with Benin or Cote d’Ivoire.

The quarter final line-up is complete and UEFA will be making
the draws today in Nyon, Switzerland, to determine the clashes between the
eight teams. But there is one recurring decimal; no team wants to be paired
with Barcelona, at least not for now.

The draw will be conducted by UEFA General Secretary, Gianni
Infantino; and the ambassador for the final that will be played at Wembley
Stadium on May 28, is former England striker Gary Lineker. The draws will be
televised by 12:00 noon Nigerian time on Hitv.

There are permutations on who will be playing who with teams
from the same country able to meet at this stage. There will be oohs and aahs
if Barcelona get paired with Real Madrid, looking at the 5-0 bashing that
Barcelona dished out to Madrid and also if Raul, now with Schalke 04, will
return to the Santiago Bernebeu to play his former side, Real Madrid. Another
mouth-watering prospect will be a Chelsea versus Barcelona match with all the history
and the memory of Norwegian referee, Tom Ovrebo, who many Chelsea fans wish
they had never heard of.

What they say

Though Jose Mourinho has said he will not like to play either of
his former clubs, Inter Milan and Chelsea, there is always the fact that with
an open draw, anything can happen with the quarter final matches fixed for
April 5 and 6 and the return legs a week after.

Cristiano Ronaldo said his team would like to meet one of the
smaller sides, a statement that may come back to haunt the Portuguese winger.
“Maybe we’d like to meet one of the smaller teams,” he said. “But can you
really say that of any side that has reached the last eight? Whoever remains in
the competition is there on merit and we need to be wary of everyone. Barcelona
for me would represent the most difficult challenge and maybe it would be
better to come up against them further down the line. We could even see Raul
return home, but let’s wait and see what happens.”

Chelsea’s Didier Drogba has said his side will do anything to
get to another semi-final. “Let’s wait for the draw and see what’s going to
happen,” he said in an interview with uefa.com . “We just want to play this
quarter-final and do everything to go through, There are a lot of big teams
there. It’s difficult to say ‘I want to avoid Manchester United’ and then you
play Barcelona, or ‘I want to avoid Barcelona’ and then you play Inter Milan.
They’re all big teams.”

The line-up of the eight teams include: two Spanish sides, three English
teams and one from Ukraine, Germany and Italy. These teams are Barcelona, Real
Madrid, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspurs, Chelsea, Shakhtar Donetsk,
Schalke 04 and defending champions, Inter Milan.

FIFA
president, Sepp Blatter, has yet to finish his work as the head of
soccer’s world governing body and is still full of energy ahead of the
June elections and a possible fourth term, the 75-year-old Swiss said
on Thursday.

Blatter was in
Kuala Lumpur to meet the head of the Malaysian Football Association,
Ahmad Shah, concluding a short Asian tour as he seeks to canvas support
ahead of the June 1 elections at the FIFA Congress in Zurich. “I feel
still full of energy and I’ve not yet finished my work in FIFA,”
Blatter told reporters in the Malaysian capital on Thursday. “I’m now
in my 13th year of presidency in FIFA, and the 36th year to work in
FIFA, so I’m available to the congress.”

Blatter is, so far, the only candidate for the role but widespread
media reports suggest Asian Football Confederation head, Mohamed Bin
Hammam, will announce his intention to run on Friday. Blatter was not
concerned at the prospect. “If there is competition there is
competition,” he said. “I have support from different Asian
associations, but I must have the support from whole family of FIFA.”

Regular
readers of this column, would have noticed that I have repeatedly
mentioned my utter disgust for sports promotion, instead of grassroots
sports development, especially because of the way and manner in which
such so-called grassroots sports promotions are handled in this
country. I have also always wanted to be different, as revealed very
explicitly in the M.A.D. (making a difference) series, published in
this column, by asking myself periodically, if I have made any
difference at all in my efforts to contribute to grassroots sports
development in Nigeria. I have always asked myself if I have been part
of the solutions to Nigerian sports or part of the problems. This is
because it seemed to me that the more I wrote about problems
confronting sports in this country, the worse the matter became.

It actually got to
a point towards the end of 2010 that I began considering very seriously
if it was necessary for me to continue writing about sports in Nigeria
because I wondered deep within me if the people meant to read and act
on the issues raised by columnists committed to ensuring that Nigeria’s
lost glory in sports is revived – and I make bold to say there are a
few of such in this country – ever get to read our write-ups? Or, are
we considered as jobless busy-bodies, struggling to have some share of
the national cake, in order to make ends meet, or begging to be noticed
and recommended to be listed for the next major international or
national sporting event, so that some of the largesse attached to such
events will trickle down to us?

So I took three
major decisions. I would not quit. I would not concentrate on football
only. I would make very concrete efforts to put some of what I write
into practice. That way, I would be making a difference, especially as
I have been given the mandate and enabling environment to achieve this.
This was what gave birth to the Dove Golden Belt Tournament. It was
conceptualised as one of the events to celebrate the 69th birthday
anniversary celebration of Enoch Adejare Adeboye – an ex-boxer and
General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God.

The entire
programme started on Tuesday February 22, 2011, with a well attended
media briefing, addressed by Johnson Odesola, the Special Assistant to
Adeboye on Administrative and Personnel matters, Wale Oladunjoye,
Senior Special Assistant to the Lagos state Governor, on Grassroots
Sports Development, veteran boxing coach, Joe Mensah and Segun Ajose,
the Commonwealth Light Welterweight boxing champion. While addressing
the Press, Odesola said the tournament was part of the Redeemed
Christian Church of God’s contribution to sports development in Nigeria
via strategies that would leverage the rejuvenation of boxing in line
with the Millennium Development Goals (M.D.G.’s) and the Sports for
Development and Peace programmes of the United Nations General
Assembly. He also stressed that the programme is one of the core
statutory duties of the church, which is to evolve a pyramid that will
create a career line for millions of potential sports persons within
and outside the church. This, he emphasised, is by giving them an
assurance of a positive future through sports and education. The
programme is just one of the contributions of the church to youth
empowerment in this massively blessed country.

As part of the
Redeemed Christian Church of God’s determination to contribute to the
revival and development of Sports in Nigeria, by effectively
contributing to the grooming of the next generation of sports men and
women who will not only excel academically and professionally but who
will also understand and appreciate the fear of God, a life of moral
excellence devoid of recklessness, pride and other numerous social
vices, Odesola also announced the establishment of the Dove Sports
Refinery, which will consist of a football academy, boxing academy and
other related sports academies, at the Redemption Camp along the
Lagos/Ibadan Expressway. Expectedly, the facial and body language of
some of the sports writers spoke volumes, as Odesola rounded up his
speech and fielded questions.

And so, the stage was set for the pre-tournament summit and the
tournament proper, which would not have been successful but for the
contributions of Lagos and Ogun State boxing associations, Segun
Odegbami, Hubert Orji, Olusola Faleti, Wale Edun – who provided the
boxing ring free of charge, the Minister of Sports, Taoheed Adedoja,
who was very ably represented and, of course, the Lord God Almighty.

Bayern were favourites to advance to the
Champions League last eight after a superb first half against holders
Inter Milan on Tuesday, following their 1-0 win in Italy in the first
leg.

But defensive weaknesses that
have plagued them all season and a concentration lapse allowed Inter to
come back and win 3-2 with an 88th minute goal to complete Bayern’s
misery after their German Cup exit and their poor Bundesliga title
defence.

“This was a stab in the
heart,” said club CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. “We must now try to rescue
anything we can in the Bundesliga but that will not be easy. Somehow we
have to regroup and get on with it.”

Pressure
is mounting on Bayern, who will host next year’s Champions League final
but face a tough challenge to finish second and qualify for the
tournament automatically or at least finish in the top-three and play a
qualifying round for Europe’s premier competition.

They
are in fourth place, 16 points behind leaders Borussia Dortmund with
eight games left, seven-points behind second-placed Bayern Leverkusen
and two points behind Hanover 96 in third.

“This
was a self-inflicted defeat like so many this season,” said coach Louis
van Gaal, who has already fallen victim of their bad run and will be
leaving at the end of the season, a year early.

“Now we must somehow drag the team out of that dark hole it is in because we still want to qualify for the Champions League.”

With
German media dubbing Van Gaal a lame duck, the 59-year-old Dutchman
knows only too well that this will be a major challenge for his
players, who lack the end-of-season consistency of last year when they
won the domestic double and reached the Champions League final only to
lose to Inter.

“We did this to ourselves and it is not the first time this has happened this season,” a stunned Arjen Robben said.

“We can talk about it and analyse it but we have been doing it all season. We can’t rescue this season anymore.”</

After
putting up a spectacular show last year, hosting a successful FIFA
World Cup last year, the Confederation of African Football (CAF)
yesterday opted for South Africa as new host for the Africa Youth
Championships.

The tournament,
originally scheduled for March 18 – April 1, in Libya was postponed due
to civil unrest in the country and is now billed to kick off on April
17 – May 2.

“We decided to move
the African Youth Championship to South Africa and it will be played
from April 17 to 2 May,” CAF President Issa Hayatou said in a statement.

New hosts South Africa will thus replace Libya in the eight-team tournament in Group A.

They will face Mali, Egypt and Lesotho who are also in the same group.

The president of
South Africa Football Association, Kirsten Nematandani said his country
is ready to put up another top notch performance both as hosts and
competitors.

South Africa had declared hundreds of millions as profit from hosting the last world cup.

Hoping for better

Meanwhile,
Nigeria’s U-20 team, the Flying Eagles will be hoping to clear the sad
memories brought by the Super Eagles dismal outing last time out in
South Africa.

The Super Eagles
were docked out in the first round of the last World Cup after losing
games to Argentina, Greece and drawing with South Korea. The John
Obuh-led team are in a difficult group, alongside the World and African
Champions, Ghana; perennial rivals, Cameroun and the Gambia.

The team currently camped in Port Harcourt will be gunning for an unprecedented sixth African youth Championship title.

The Flying Eagles
only returned to the country on Monday evening from a four-week
training camp that saw them travelling to such places as Libya, Turkey
and the United Arab Emirates, and playing series of friendly matches
along the way.

The Africa Youth Championship also doubles as the qualifiers for Youth World Cup to be staged in Colombia later this year.

Africa has been given four slots, meaning that only the semi
finalist at this year’s event will get a chance to represent the
continent at the World Championships.

The
stage is set for the much anticipated wrestling duel between Nigeria’s
Power Uti and Super Festus of the United States of America. The
American arrived Lagos at the weekend for the fight.

The fight, which
comes up in Lagos on Friday, March 18, will see Uti placing his
Continental Wrestling Alliance (CWA) heavyweight title on the line.

And if events that
transpired at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos are
anything to go by, then wrestling fans are in for an unforgettable show
come Friday night.

Uti was part of the
entourage at the airport to welcome, not only the American to Nigeria,
but also Andre Pamphile, the president of the Continental Wrestling
Alliance.

Festus, however,
created a scene at the airport when he charged towards Uti inside the
arrival lounge, grabbing the continental champion by the neck.

Uti somehow got
away from the American and retaliated with some punches before Pamphile
and other onlookers at the airport stepped in to stop both wrestlers
from starting the eagerly anticipated duel at the airport.

“I am not here to joke,” an enraged Festus said. “I am serious with my ambition of taking this belt from Power Uti.

“I will teach him a lesson before his people.”

For his part, Uti, who has held the CWA title for over a decade, and who has never tasted defeat on home soil, remained calm.

“I am ready for this fight and I will give all within me to win,” said the Nigerian.

“This is my country and no one will come here to take this belt from me.”

The unfair treatment accorded female footballers in Nigeria came into focus yesterday at a media roundtable in Lagos.

The event, which
took place in Lagos was organised by Search and Groom, a
nongovernmental organisation based in Lagos in conjunction with the
Heinrich Boell Foundation, a German organisation affiliated to the
German Political Party, Alliance 90/Greens.

The roundtable,
with the theme ‘We play for gender equality,’ had representatives of
media organisations coming together to discuss “Gender (in) equality in
Women Football”.

Delivering the
keynote address at the event, Joke Adefulire, Lagos State Commissioner
for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation decried the imbalance between
the men’s and women’s game.

“The men’s league
has been given its autonomy thereby enjoying the full
benefits/complement of sponsorship, marketing and advertising,” she
said.

Dear to the heart

Adefulire, who said the topic, was dear to her heart, added:

“When we describe
the game as beautiful, we see the future as feminine and for those who
know the link between beauty and feminism. If you conclude that
football is a woman you will not be wrong”.

Participants at the
event deplored the huge gap existing between men and women’s football
in the country particularly the lack of organisation in the women’s
league especially the thinking by the marketing department of the
Nigeria Football Federation that the women’s game is not marketable.

The preferential
treatment accorded members of Nigeria’s male national teams
particularly the Super Eagles, also became a topic discussion at the
roundtable with participants unhappy with the fact that while members
of the Super Eagles are amply rewarded for excelling in international
football competitions, members of the Super Falcons, Nigeria’s senior
women’s team are treated shabbily. They held that while the Eagles were
well rewarded for winning the Africa Cup of Nations in 1994, the
Falcons have not been given any special treatment for their numerous
successes on the African continent.

Shady administrators

Another key issue
that came for discussion at the event was lack of transparency
perceived by the participants to be involved in the administration of
football in Nigeria. They held that with world football governing body,
FIFA making annual grants available to the NFF to develop women’s
football, there is no indication of how the funds are administered.

The media itself
was not absolved of blame in the problems facing women’s football with
participants agreeing that it had not done enough to promote it:

“We have not done
enough to push the equality of the women agenda in a game that the
women have brought us joy and celebration in achievement both
individually and as a team,” Adefulire said adding that the situation
can be remedied:

“However the media can do more because the women game deserves it
and has worked hard to earn our respect by these achievements,” she
said.

Nigeria’s
former number one ranked golfer, Oche Odoh, will take to the field
today as this year’s edition of the MTC Namibia Open tees off in the
Namibian capital, Windhoek.

The championship,
which will see participants battling for a share of the 1.2million
South African rand (around 39million naira) prize money will be taking
place on the 6,570-metre par-71 Windhoek Country Club.

The star prize is
however 190,200 rand (around six million naira) and a strong field of
131 golfers, including Oche, will be hoping that they get to become the
winner of the princely amount come the end of the championship on
Sunday.

“I am very
positive. In a while I have not felt like this and I am very
confident,” said Oche who is the only Nigerian taking part in the
championship which is one of the biggest events in the Southern
African-based Sunshine Tour.

Odoh recently took
part in the Harare Open, but despite an impressive display of shots
that saw him progressing from the pre-qualifying rounds and into the
tournament’s main draw, he failed to advance past the second round no
thanks to a heavy downpour.

He is however
hoping to make up for his recent disappointment with a good display at
the Namibia Open, and is encouraged by the victory of his close buddy
Gift Willy in last month’s Gambian Open.

“Gift is my
room-mate in South Africa and it is comforting and encouraging to hear
the news of his win in Banjul,” Odoh said of his compatriot.

“We share the same dream of playing ourselves to the top of the world ranking. It is encouraging.”

The favourites

Odoh is scheduled
to take to the greens later today in the company of South Africa’s
Lourens Kleynhans and Finland’s Onkoshi Eriksson but he, as well as
other competitors at the Open will have to be at their best to get the
better of South Africa’s Branden Grace.

In the absence of
defending champion, Hennie Otto, and with the man who beat him to the
title in the final round of last month’s Telkom PGA Championship,
George Coetzee, in action in the Sicilian Open on the European Tour,
Grace, currently ranked seventh on the Sunshine Tour, is one of the
favourites for the title.

But he won’t have things all his own way as he will challenged by
his cousin Michiel Bothma, a four-time winner on the Sunshine Tour, and
fellow South African Oliver Bekker.