Nigeria Content Online

With a new set of
people from major cities across the nation, the Heineken Champions
Planet House is ready for the return leg of knockout matches in the UEFA
Champions League.

Barcelona’s quest to
overturn the 1-2 loss to Arsenal at the 99, 354 capacity Camp Nou
tomorrow will be high point of events planned for the day as arrangement
have been concluded to ensure visitors have fun filled experience.

“We are looking
forward to a full house knowing full well the followership the two teams
(Barcelona and Arsenal) command in global football. In other word the
visitors will have a great memory of this special night for a long time
to come because there will be a lot in-house games and entertainment for
all visitors,” the Assistant Brand Manager, Heineken, Kehinde Ebuoma
disclosed.

When both team met
at the Emirates stadium in London three weeks ago, it took two late
goals from Robin van Persie and Andrei Arshavin to give Arsenal the slim
win in the first leg at the Emirates. “We appreciate the emotion of
loyal consumers and their affinity to the clubs and these show of
emotions is most expected but the celebration went far beyond
expectations,” the Assistant Brand Manager concluded.

The English FA would have been within its rights to sanction
Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney following an elbowing incident last
week, FIFA President Sepp Blatter said on Saturday.

The FA said it could not retrospectively take action against
Rooney for elbowing Wigan Athletics’ James McCarthy in the back of the head in
a Premier League match because, under FIFA rules, as referee Mark Clattenburg
had already given a foul against the England man for obstruction, they could
take no further action.

However, Blatter told a news conference after a meeting of the
International Football Association Board (IFAB): “This is up to the discretion
of the national association.

“They can use video evidence in the discipline and control
committee.

“They can impose or change a decision if a red or yellow card
has been given to the wrong player. If there’s violence the national
association can intervene and punish a player — this is permitted at the
discretion of the national association.”

The FA were roundly criticised for taking no action against
Rooney.

Right decision

FA chairman David Bernstein, who was sitting next to Blatter at
the news conference, said he was convinced the FA had done the right thing.

Bernstein added: “In the Wayne Rooney situation, under FIFA
regulations if the referee sees the incident, which in this case he did do, the
FA has no authority except in what is called exceptional circumstances, really
exceptional — the Ben Thatcher incident is the only one where that has been
used.

“If you open the door to ‘halfway exceptional’ the floodgates
will open.

“I think that has more merit than meets the eye, the basis of
the primacy of the referee staying in place has some merit even though that
will upset fans sometimes and quite understandably.” Bernstein added: “If the
referee states he has seen the incident, the FA is not able to make decisions
except in exceptional circumstances.” The most famous case of “exceptional
circumstances” in the Premier League was when former Manchester City defender
Ben Thatcher received an eight-match suspension after he led with an elbow and
fractured the skull of Portsmouth midfielder Pedro Mendes in 2006.

FIFA’s rule 77 covers “sanctioning serious infringements which
have escaped the match officials’ attention” and national associations can
rectify “obvious errors” in the referee’s disciplinary decisions.

Blatter said: “Everyone deserves fair play. Respect starts with
self-discipline.

This is what we are asking everywhere, from youth teams upwards
and it is also valid for personalities.

“The higher your position the higher your responsibility. Those that have
more power should be more responsible towards others. This is a principle in life.”

Here
we go again. Our very worst is again put on display. For the umpteenth
time, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) bespatters mud on Nigerians
through rank chicanery. Once again, the men who run football in Nigeria
prove to be goblins incapable of ennobling conduct. How long shall we
suffer these creatures, these men who seem unable to rein in their
destructive demons? Yesterday, it was the sleaze of the Hampshire
Hotel, the $236,000 that ‘miraculously’ flew out of a locker in the
NFF’s stained glass house and Sani Lulu’s familial jamboree to the 2010
Africa Cup of Nations in Angola. Today, it is the tragicomedy of the
Obama Cup. The signs were all there from day one. Discerning Nigerians
saw the tournament for what it was — a caper designed to profit a few
individuals who surely must be unmasked as long as God lives.

When Jide Fashikun,
the radical journalist based in Abuja, alerted Nigerians to the phony
nature of the tournament, the spin masters at the NFF vilified him in
the same manner they had reviled him when he told his countrymen that
the botched international friendly game with Guatemala existed only in
the opaque minds of the NFF’s top brass.

Now we know better.
Their caper is exposed and the world is witness once again to their
greed, if not criminality. The signs were all there. Twenty-four hours
before Coach Samson Siasia and his boys left for the United States,
Nigerian newspapers had reported that the tournament was off. Some of
them, using the Panama football federation as a source, said the
tournament had been shifted to the second week of this month.

Officials of the
NFF pretended not to have heard. Was it because they had information
about the tournament Nigerians were not privy to or was it important
that the team travelled just so the racket of a few individuals who
will sure be unmasked, came to fruition?

A convenient scapegoat

I am inclined to
believe that there was at play what lawyers refer to as mens rea
(criminal intent) and it should not be difficult to establish once the
matter is brought before officials of the Economic and Financial
Commission (EFCC) as it rightly should. With the racket unravelling,
the football federation has found a convenient scapegoat in match
agent, Pius Oleh. Speaking on Friday, NFF president, Aminu Maigari,
said the football federation was going to ask FIFA to have Oleh’s
licence revoked. It is all very well to blame Oleh, who the federation
says misled and embarrassed them, but the question remains, where were
Maigari and his men when reports indicated the tournament had been
called off? Were they on a trip to Mars?

Does Maigari really
want us to believe the NFF was ignorant of the latest developments
surrounding the tournament when we are not ninnies? There are
definitely questions that Maigari and his men need to provide answers
to. One of them is: how did Oleh come into the picture? Was he
contacted by the federation or did they approach him to help arrange
for them to participate in the tournament? If he was approached, who
made the initial contact and who exactly did he deal with at the
federation?

Answers to these questions will prove useful in determining whether
fraud has been perpetrated and who pays for the money expended by the
federation on the ill-fated tournament. We need to get to the bottom of
this so it doesn’t end up like the missing $236,000. Nigerian football
cannot continue to cope with the malfeasance that is slowly strangling
it to death. It needs a vitality that its present custodians cannot
provide. It is a shame that given the plenitude of decent
football-loving and God-fearing individuals in this country, the
commanding heights of Nigerian football are being held captive by
mediocrities, men incapable of rational or logical thought and action
as far as the administration of the game is concerned. Clearly, we need
to get out of this bind. Anyone who loves football must rise up and
demand that the game be saved from certain death, which will come if it
is left in the hands of its present superintendents.

Egypt
have asked the Confederation of African Football to postpone an African
Nations Cup qualifier in South Africa because of the recent civil
unrest in their country, a CAF spokesman confirmed on Sunday. Egypt
want the game, scheduled for March 26 in Johannesburg, to be put back
to June because of a shutdown of their premier league programme
following the riots and demonstrations that led to the toppling of
president Hosni Mubarak earlier this month. Egyptian clubs have not
played league matches since early January and the federation feels
their players will not have had the requisite preparation for the
qualifier.

CAF said they had received a request from the Egypt Football Association and would discuss it over the next few days.

It is a key game
for Egypt, who have won the last three Nations Cup finals, because they
have fallen three points behind South Africa in the standings after the
first two rounds of matches.

Only the group winner is guaranteed a place at the 2012 finals, co-hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

Egypt have asked CAF to consider their situation a case of ‘force
majeure’, which would allow them to claim a postponement because of
circumstances beyond their control.

Wayne
Rooney seems likely to escape punishment for elbowing Wigan Athletic’s
James McCarthy on Saturday as the referee saw the incident and awarded
a free kick against the Manchester United striker. Rooney caught
McCarthy off the ball in an innocuous situation on the halfway line
after four minutes of the Premier League match at the DW Stadium, which
United went on to win 4-0. He was widely condemned for the action. The
referee awarded a free kick but did not caution Rooney, leaving Wigan
manager Roberto Martinez furious.

“I saw the incident clearly and the referee did as well because he gave the free-kick,” Martinez told reporters.

“Once you give a
free-kick it is quite clear that it is a red card. When you look at the
replay, it is quite clear he catches James McCarthy in the face with
his elbow.

“If one of my
players had done that, I would think he was very lucky to stay on the
pitch.” United manager Alex Ferguson, however, said “there is nothing
in it.” “But, what will happen, because it is Wayne Rooney, the press
will raise a campaign to get him hung by Tuesday or electrocuted or
something like that.

“It is unbelievable. Watch the press. It will be interesting to see it.”

United’s victory took them four points clear of Arsenal, who play
Birmingham City in the League Cup final later on Sunday. They can
stretch that lead to seven when they play Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on
Tuesday.

The
Nigeria Football Federation has threatened to take the organizers of
the Green Bowl Soccer Tournament to FIFA for failing to notify it of
the tourney’s postponement. The Super Eagles were already in the United
Sates before receiving news of the postponement of the tourney also
known as the 2011 United States’ President’s Holiday Celebration Soccer
Tournament. While describing the fiasco as an embarrassment to the
country, NFF president, Aminu Maigari lambasted the tourney’s main
organizer, US-based Nigerian licensed agent, Pius Oleh and instructed
the NFF secretariat to make a detailed report of the fiasco to
football’s world governing body, FIFA.

“This is untenable.
How can he tell us that there was a ticketing problem after our team
had travelled that long distance to play? How can he tell us that he
did not know there was a problem until our national team arrived in
America?” demanded Maigari.

“This is totally
irresponsible on his part. How come he did not ensure that everything
was perfected before telling our team to start coming?” he further
demanded.

He added: “We are
not going to take this lightly. We will get all the documents that have
to do with the tournament, all the agreements we had with him along the
way and send these to FIFA.”

Late notice

Nigeria’s
delegation, made up of 20 players and nine officials, left Lagos for
the US city of Atlanta last Wednesday night, and arrived at Dallas’
Fort Worth Airport by 10am local time (4pm Nigerian time) on Thursday
under the impression that they would be taking part in the four-nation
tournament. However, the delegation was shocked when Oleh called to
inform them that they were having problems with ticketing outfit,
Ticketmaster, and that the competition would have to be postponed by
two weeks.

As a result, Super
Eagles coach Samson Siasia, who has long been resident in the United
States and whose wife and kids reside there, made efforts to arrange
friendly games for the side albeit to no avail.

To make matters
worse, Oleh, at short notice, also changed the team’s accommodation
plans redirecting the Super Eagles to the Marriott Courtyard instead of
the Double Tree Hotel, and then failing to meet with the team until
Friday. But regarding the tourney’s postponement, Oleh was quoted by
the media head of the NFF, Ademola Olajire as stating that he had
everything tidied up until the problem with Ticketmaster cropped up on
Thursday evening.

According to
Olajire, Oleh expressed regret that the Super Eagles had arrived in the
United States for the event before the unfortunate development but
reiterated that he had gotten the approval of the USSF for the
tournament, adding that the tournament ‘was not a scam’ and that it
would get underway in a fortnight.

But Maigari, who
cancelled his Friday trip to the United States, has disclosed that the
Super Eagles will definitely not be available for the new date.

“Pius Oleh will
first have to account to FIFA on this embarrassment,” said Maigari. “We
have no business with him concerning any new date. He should be ready
to offset all our expenses and also pay compensation. Let him play his
tournament with any team he wants.

“All the same, we apologize to Nigerians and the government for this unfortunate incident,” said Maigari.

West
Ham United climbed off the bottom of the Premier League with an
uplifting and well-deserved 3-1 home win over Liverpool on Sunday. West
Ham went ahead after 22 minutes with a superb goal by Scott Parker as
the England midfielder played a one-two with Thomas Hitzlsperger before
placing a shot beyond Pepe Reina.

They doubled their lead at the end of the first half when Demba Ba headed in a Gary O’Neil cross.

Liverpool struggled
to get control and managed only one goal in reply when Glen Johnson
tapped in a cross-shot by Luis Suarez four minutes from time.

West Ham had the final say though when Carlton Cole blasted in their third in stoppage time.

The victory took
West Ham to 28 points and above Wigan Athletic and West Bromwich Albion
and completed a good week after they thrashed Burnley 5-1 on Monday to
reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.

It was sixth-placed
Liverpool’s first defeat in eight league games and, following a 1-1
home draw with Wigan after five straight wins, severely dents their
outside hopes of snatching a Champions League place.

Manchester United, who beat Wigan Athletic 4-0 on Saturday, lead the standings on 60 points, four clear of Arsenal.

Jose
Mourinho has lashed out at what he called the “hypocrites” who did not
agree with his complaints that the La Liga calendar was unfair on his
Real Madrid team and favoured Barcelona over other clubs.

In a colourful
performance at a news conference on Wednesday, the flamboyant
Portuguese called one Spanish journalist a hypocrite to his face,
though he later apologised and said he had only done it to make a point.

After Real’s 0-0
draw at Deportivo Coruna on Saturday, which left them seven points
behind leaders Barca, Mourinho said his players had not had enough time
to rest after the previous Tuesday’s Champions League match at
Olympique Lyon.

He repeated the
complaint on Wednesday and noted Barca do not play at Sevilla until the
Sunday after Tuesday’s Champions League match at home to Arsenal,
whereas Valencia must play on Wednesday at Schalke 04 and on Saturday
at Real Zaragoza.

“It’s you who have
to comment on this and you can report this in a serious and balanced
way or you can report it in a hypocritical way,” Mourinho said,
addressing some 40 journalists at the Real training ground outside
Madrid.

“If you want to be
hypocritical it’s your problem”, the former Inter Milan and Chelsea
manager added. “I am not afraid of saying the truth.” Real host
struggling Malaga on Thursday.

Mourinho will be
without Germany midfielder Sami Khedira, who is still recovering from a
muscle strain, and Portugal central defender Pepe, who has flu.

Malaga are coached by the man Mourinho replaced at Real, Manuel
Pellegrini who is returning to the Bernabeu for the first time since he
was sacked.

Chelsea defender David Luiz was the centre of attention after
scoring in their 2-1 comeback win at home to Manchester United on Tuesday as
visiting manager Alex Ferguson unleashed another rant at the match officials.

United led with a Wayne Rooney goal after half an hour but
Brazil centre back Luiz slammed home a well-taken equaliser nine minutes into
the second half and Frank Lampard completed the turnaround 11 minutes from time
with a penalty.

United had centre back Nemanja Vidic sent off in stoppage time
for a second booking but Ferguson was incensed that Luiz had not suffered the
same fate earlier and was also unhappy with the penalty given after Chris
Smalling tripped Yuri Zhirkov.

“The penalty kick was so soft but we played very well.

It was a great performance by us. We didn’t deserve that,”
Ferguson told Sky Sports.

“That’s three years in a row referees’ decisions have changed
the game (here).”

Luiz was booked by referee Martin Atkinson for a foul after 61
minutes then appeared fortunate to escape a second yellow card after flattening
Rooney.

“It was incredible. Even before that he’d done Chicharito
(Javier Hernandez) off the ball. He’d done him late. Nothing done, the
referee’s in front of it,” added Ferguson.

“He (Luiz) does Rooney clear as day, he’s six yards from it, he
doesn’t do anything. These are decisions that change the game and he’s going to
be refereeing every week.”

Proud Ferguson

Ferguson, who said before the game that Rooney was lucky not to
have been banned after a clash with Wigan Athletic’s James McCarthy at the
weekend, added:

“I’m proud of the players. They’ve endured a lot of decisions
against them but they’ve come through it, they’ve done their best and created
good chances.” Chelsea’s win took them within 12 points of leaders United and,
asked if they were back in the title race, Ferguson said: “If they get
decisions like tonight then it can change everything. They got a lot of
decisions that surprised me.”

Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti did not want to discuss the
officials but said Luiz might have been lucky.

“There was a lot of intensity and it was not easy for the
referee to decide every time,” he said. “There was a lot going on on the pitch
so the referee decided he didn’t see this.” The Italian preferred to
concentrate on the spirit shown by his side after they had been outplayed in
the first half.

“We kept going with strength, intensity and power in our performance
against a fantastic United team,” he said.

“We actually started well but at halftime I told them that we
had to do it for 45 minutes, not just 15.

“It was not easy to come back but we had a good balance in the
second half.” The win took Chelsea back into the top four but Ancelotti said
the champions had no realistic hope of catching United, who are four points
ahead of Arsenal having played a game more.

“It’s too far, we can’t think we can get to the top,” he said.
“But the victory was important for us and our confidence.” Midfielder Lampard
added: “We’re still a lot of points behind but all we could do was win the
game.

“United are deservedly top but we’ve still got some fight in us and we
showed that tonight.”

Arsenal returned to form with a 5-0 drubbing of Leyton Orient and Manchester
City eased past Aston Villa 3-0 to reach the FA Cup quarter-finals on
Wednesday.

Nicklas Bendtner fired a hat-trick as Arsenal recovered from their League
Cup final loss to Birmingham City in a one-sided fifth-round replay against
Orient to set up a titanic quarter-final against Manchester United.

The Gunners’ victory was never in doubt after Marouane Chamakh and Bendtner
put Arsenal 2-0 up and Arsene Wenger’s side bounced back emphatically from
Sunday’s shock defeat by Birmningham.

Manchester City also reached the last eight with an easy win over much-changed
Aston Villa team and they face Championship side Reading who beat Premier
League Everton on Tuesday.

“It was important we came back from Sunday’s defeat with a win,”
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger told reporters.

“We are having a fine run apart from Sunday’s defeat which came under
special circumstances. But we played very well tonight.”

The Gunners, held to a 1-1 draw by third tier Orient in the first game, were
looking for a rapid response after Sunday’s painful 2-1 loss when they conceded
a last-minute goal to Birmingham after a mix-up between goalkeeper Wojciech
Szczesny and defender Laurent Koscielny.

But there were no mistakes at the Emirates where the crowd were subdued
until Arsenal took control of the game.

Chamakh settled nerves with a well-taken side-footed goal, his first since
November, after seven minutes before Bendtner headed the second, Arsenal’s
100th of the season in all competitions.

Orient, who scored in the last minute to take
the tie to a replay, had chances in the opening stages with Dean Cox almost
cancelling out Arsenal’s opener after 14 minutes.

But despite a spirited performance from the visitors, Arsenal were too sharp
and had too much guile, and that included 19-year-old midfielder Conor
Henderson who had a fine debut.

Bendtner’s second just before halftime exposed the gulf in class between the
teams when he beat off defenders before firing a curling shot past goalkeeper
Jamie Jones.

Jones had no chance of saving his 62nd-minute penalty either before Gael
Clichy wrapped up the win with an angled left-foot drive 15 minutes from time.

Early grip

Manchester City took an early grip at Eastlands with Yaya Toure opening the
scoring after Villa failed to clear a corner in the fifth minute.

The ball bounced off the shoulder of Ciaran Clark and into Toure’s path and
he cracked it home from inside the six-yard box.

Mario Balotelli, beginning to settle at City after a difficult first few
months at Eastlands disrupted by injury, added the second when he collected a
pass from Toure and sidefooted home a half-volley from 15-metres that bounced
in off Brad Friedel’s post.

David Silva added the third 20 minutes from time with a powerful drive from
the edge of the penalty area.

The other quarter-finals are Stoke City against West Ham United and
Birmingham against Bolton Wanderers.

REUTERS