Nigeria Content Online

The
French national football team, under Laurent Blanc, are still in the
process of re-building their name after a dismal showing in South
Africa in 2010. When they line out to face Brazil today, Blanc and his
players will know that further progress will be marked by a positive
result. France beat Brazil to win the one and only World Cup trophy in
1998 and also won by a Thierry Henry goal in the 2006 World Cup quarter
finals, so it will be a psychological boost for the French to triumph
once again.

Karim Benzema and
Matthieu Valbuena scored the two goals at Wembley that secured a
morale-boosting 2-1 win over England last November.

Coach Laurent
Blanc, has been playing up this match by saying his players will give
their all to win today’s match. “As a player, you don’t have many
opportunities to face Brazil in your career,” Blanc told reporters in
France.

“They are one of
the two best teams in the world. It’s going to be difficult. Brazil
have a multitude of good players. To measure oneself against the best
is the best way to make progress. It will be a good gauge,” he
continued.

The team will be
made up of young players like Yoann Gourcuff, Alou Diarra and Loic
Remy. Though these three players have underperformed in the Ligue 1,
Blanc said they cannot be discarded. “I know these players very well. I
know what they are capable of, even if they haven’t shown it in a while.

Brazil’s goalkeeper
Julio Cesar will be back in between the sticks after a largely
disappointing World Cup. Also restructuring under new coach, Mano
Menezes, he said Brazil will always be happy to call up a world class
goalkeeper like Cesar. “This was already part of our plans and it’s
with happiness that I call up Julio Cesar for the first time”, coach
Mano Menezes said. Kaka though did not get a recall after making his
return to Real Madrid last month, as he was not deemed fully fit.

Probable teams

France: Hugo
Lloris; Eric Abidal, Adil Rami, Philippe Mexes, Bacary Sagna; Yann
M’Vila, Alou Diarra, Yoann Gourcuff, Florent Malouda; Kevin Gameiro,
Karim Benzema

Brazil: Julio Cesar; Daniel Alves, Thiago Silva, David Luiz, Marcelo; Ramires, Lucas, Elias; Hernanes, Robinho, Alexandre Pato

Battle of the best

Barcelona’s Lionel
Messi will confront Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo but on the
international leval as Portugal tries to add Argentina’s scalp to
Spain’s. Portugal, led by Ronaldo walloped Spain 4-1 in a November
match and will hope to keep the momentum under new coach, Paulo Bento.

The meeting between
Messi’s Argentina and Ronaldo’s Portugal in Switzerland – a very
neutral venue will afford football fans the chance to compare these two
great players on the same pitch.

But Bento said,
“For me, it is not just about Ronaldo against Messi, but above all
about Portugal against Argentina – individual duels are for the fans.”
Argentina’s new coach Sergio Batista, who took over from Diego Maradona
the 2010 South Africa World cup said the game will be used to test new
players. This will be in preparation for the Copa America that will be
hosted by Argentina in July. “This is a good moment to try out some
youngsters,” Batista said.

Meanwhile Germany, with a lot of very young players being blooded by
Coach Joachin Low, will meet an Italian side that is also beginning to
look the way of young players.

Super
Eagles coach, Samson Siasia has called on his players to live up to the
national team’s Super Eagles name as he starts rebuilding the team,
beginning with today’s friendly against Sierra Leone.

In what was his
first official meeting with the team on Tuesday morning at the Eko
Hotel and Suites, Lagos the former Super Eagles striker made it clear
that there would be no ‘big man’ in the side, and that everyone was
equal in the team beginning from Joseph Yobo right down to the players
from the Nigerian league.

“Yobo is our captain, but there are no big players here. Any big player must show the bigness on the pitch,” said Siasia.

“This is a new Super Eagles, and you must fly high.

“Nigerians want to
see a new team, with a new and positive attitude and we have our work
cut out trying to meet the high expectations of a people who have
tremendous passion for the game.”

The golden era

In recent years,
the Super Eagles have become a shadow of the all-conquering side of the
1990’s which won the African Cup of Nations in 1994, including two
successive second round appearances at the FIFA World Cup.

Siasia played a key
role in most of the national team’s success stories of that period and,
in the light of the team’s poor showings, especially at last year’s
World Cup in South Africa, he has charged the players to go all out and
return the Super Eagles to the top of the game in Africa beginning with
the game against the Leone Stars.

“We must respect
one another in this set-up,” he continued. “We also have to work hard.
It is important that we get some good results as we start in order that
our people will forget the disappointment of the FIFA World Cup finals
in South Africa.

“You may think the
Sierra Leone match is a friendly and a small game, but Nigerians will
begin to judge us from this first game, and it is very, very important
that we show great spirit. We must fight for the ball and play for one
another.

“This match will
prepare us for the African Nations Cup qualifying match against
Ethiopia coming up next month. And we all know we must win all our
remaining matches in the qualifying series.

“What I know and what I can tell you for sure is that Nigerians are
good people. If you show the spirit and you fight for the ball, they
will support you all the way,” he added.

It
is a fact that without footballers there will be no game called
football. What this clearly means is that footballers should be central
to the calculations of administrators of the game.

In our case in
Nigeria that does not appear to be the case. Here, football
administrators carry on without the slightest consideration for the men
and women in the trenches, those who pick up injuries and are laid up
for considerable periods.

In the nearly one
year that crises have engulfed Nigerian football, scant regard has been
paid as to the feelings or opinions of footballers whether playing here
in Nigeria or abroad.

Quite tragic
indeed. But what is even more tragic is the attitude of the players
themselves. In all the time we have had Nigeria’s football managers
drag the game in the mud through knavery and chicanery; our footballers
have remained strangely quiet. Not one of them has spoken up against
the danger posed to the game by the bickering among those whose
responsibility it is to ensure development of the game.

Everywhere football
is taken seriously, there are players’ unions established to protect
the interest of footballers and to also ensure that there is seamless
administration of the game. Nigeria was without a players’ union for
decades until Harrison Jalla and Austin Popo filled the void with the
establishment of the National Association of Nigerian footballers
(NANF) in 1991.

I watched with
interest and amazement as Nigerian players both those playing here in
Nigeria and those outside pretended as if the association did not
exist. For many years until former Nigeria Football Federation (NFF)
Sani Lulu drove a wedge between them and ultimately splintered the
organisation, NANF remained a two-man body.

Before Jalla and
Popo parted, they tried their best to sensitise players, retired and
active on the need to recognise their rights and their place within the
football system. They hit brick wall principally because the
foreign-based footballers felt that an association formed by former
footballers who did not enjoy quality playing time for the senior
national team, the Super Eagles, was beneath their dignity. On the
other hand, the players in Nigeria were too naïve not to see the
life-line presented by the formation of the association.

Today, they are
paying the price for that short-sightedness. Charlatans have taken over
football administration, men who neither played the game at any serious
level nor are distinguished by any special administrative acumen they
are bringing to the running of the sport.

Time for action

In their ignorance,
our footballers cannot contemplate the ruin the journeymen
superintending over the administration will bring it to if unchallenged.

Elsewhere, players
go on strike or speak up as one body when their interests are
threatened. In places like Spain and Italy where the lot of footballers
is considerably better than that of our players, footballers readily
down tools to force their position through.

Not so for our
players. Even when they are owed amounts running into millions by their
different clubs, the best they come up with aside sneaking to the back
waters of Europe and Asia for trials is to engage in hopeless hand
wringing.

Had our players had
the good sense to sign up to NANF their lot would probably be different
today. Unfortunately for them they are stuck with a league that is
apart from being badly organised, has officials with a mercenary
outlook and disposition to impoverish them daily.

As our players look
the other way, the game suffers and Jalla, who had the good sense to
provide them with a window of opportunity, is being vilified.

Jalla may have his
shortcoming but I say it here again as I’ve done elsewhere that without
his intervention last year, Nigerian football may have been spared all
the heat and tension of the last eight months or so but would have
collapsed one day without warning under the weight of the malfeasance
of the men administering football.

I think our
footballers have fooled around long enough. The time has come for them
to pull their socks up and take a stand. They must begin to look at the
bigger picture and stop being distracted by inanities.

What is at stake at the moment is far too important for them to sit on the fence.

If they took time to look around them they’ll discover that a good
number of the men forced out of football administration last year, are
gradually finding their way back to the football house. What that
should tell them is that the problems bedeviling football may be far
from over.

The
Super Eagles failed to train on Monday evening as scheduled — at the
Teslim Balogun Stadium no thanks to the failure of invited players to
show up early.

The team had been
billed to commence training at the stadium — venue for Wednesday’s
friendly against Sierra Leone – by 5.00pm local time.

But almost an hour
after the scheduled commencement time, news filtered in from the team’s
Eko Hotel camp that the session had been cancelled.

The head of media
at the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Ademola Olajire later told
reporters at the training venue that the session had to be called
because most players invited arrived late.

Nine in camp

According to
Olajire, only nine players had turned up at the team’s camp and as such
the technical crew, led by former international Samson Siasia, shelved
the training session.

The players in camp
include team captain Joseph Yobo, who’s on a season-long loan at
Turkish club side Fenerbahce, Taye Taiwo of French side Olympique
Marseille, and West Brom of England’s Osaze Odemwingie, who has so far
scored nine goals for the struggling Premier League side.

Others are
Heartland’s Chibuzor Okonkwo and Julius Ubido, Wasiiu Sowemimo of Kano
Pillars, Ekigho Ehiosun of Warri Wolves, Peter Utaka of Denmark’s OB
Odense as well as Ahmed Musa of Dutch side VVV Venlo.

Olajire further
revealed that the rest of the invited players were expected to arrive
last night while the team will train this morning at the match venue.

The Sierra Leoneans
will get to use the venue later in the evening to get a feel of the
artificial playing surface ahead of Wednesday’s game which is billed to
kickoff at 7.00pm local time.

Meanwhile, fans have been advised to purchase tickets for the game
at stipulated locations across Lagos as tickets will not be sold at the
venue on match day.

Olympic
champion and world pole vault record holder Yelena Isinbayeva made an
unimpressive return to competition after an 11-month break by winning a
low-key indoor meeting on Sunday.

Isinbayeva
struggled to find her top form but was still too good for her rivals,
clearing 4.81 metres on her first attempt to win the annual Russian
Winter invitational.

The flamboyant
Russian, who took a break to rediscover her love for the sport, played
down her mediocre showing in Moscow and said she was satisfied with her
first competitive outing since last March’s world indoor championships
in Doha where she failed to win a medal.

“The most important
thing for me was to win today,” Isinbayeva told reporters after failing
three times at 4.91 metres, well short of her world indoor record.

“I was away from
competition for nearly a year. I must admit I missed it, I missed the
atmosphere, the adrenalin, the nerves, everything and I am very happy
to be back.” She began with 4.61 after all her rivals, including
compatriot and former world champion Svetlana Feofanova, had left the
arena.

After easily going over her opening height, Isinbayeva also cleared 4.81 on her first try but the next height proved too tough.

The 28-year-old was confident she would quickly regain her top form.

“I did everything
what myself and my coach (Vitaly Petrov) had set out to do today. I
just had the world’s best result this year,” Isinbayeva, who also owns
the world outdoor record at 5.06, said.

“I’m getting most of my competitive feelings back and I don’t think
it would take me long before I could start going for world records
again.” Isinbayeva will also take part at the Sergei Bubka invitational
in Ukraine later this month before competing at next month’s European
indoor championships in Paris.

Reuters

Fiji
Ventures limited, a sport and recreational centre, through its sports
promotion division, Sport Manufacturing Marketing and Promotion (SMMAP)
is set to introduce a Speed darts tournament to the country.

The tourney would
act as a forum to re-introduce Nigerians to professional darts. “We
believe that dart is the leading and most popular bar game worldwide
and should be developed to give skilful and talented players a chance
to compete effectively in the lucrative international professional
arena,” said Joachim Idada, Chief Executive Officer, Fiji Ventures.

The Speed Dart
tournament will be the precursor for would-be professionals to the
Inter-bar Darts circuit. This circuit offers a total prize of N189, 000
for bars as an incentive to invest in the recreational value available
in them and the opportunities derived in exploiting a well developed
and viable darts sector in Nigeria.

But Fiji Ventures cannot promote the game by itself.

“We continue to
call on and encourage bars, breweries and distilleries to adopt bar
sports, as the industry shall be a key beneficiary when the
recreational content in bars is improved upon,” Idaba said consequently.

Players Championship

Meanwhile the
players championship continues in Bristol as Steve Brown faces Phil
Taylor in the Championship Final. Bristol’s Brown will take on 15-time
World Champion Phil Taylor in the first round of the tournament.

Brown has yet to
defeat Taylor since turning professional in 2008, but has emerged as a
challenger for the world’s top 32 during the past year knocking Terry
Jenkins out of the World Match-play in Blackpool, United Kingdom.

Brown faces Taylor,
in a best-of-eleven leg game giving the latter the chance to challenge
darts’ greatest ever player. Should Brown overcome Taylor, he would
meet either James Wade, world number three, or fellow Bristol-born Mark
Dudbridge, who travels with Brown on the Professional Darts Council
(PDC) circuit and is often a practice partner for the 30-year-old. The
Players Championship offers as first prize, £250,000 (about N63
million).

One
of Nigeria’s greatest prospects for medals at this year’s All African
Games in Maputo, Mozambique, as well as the IAAF World Championships
billed for Daegu, in South Korea, Ogho-Oghene Egwero will be among top
stars competing today at the Meeting Pas de Calais, in Liévin, France.

The meeting, which
is one of the IAAF’s top indoor competitions for this year, is expected
to attract top stars from around the world.

Egwero, who is
based in Stuttgart, Germany, said he would be taking part only in the
60m event at the competition and remains optimistic of churning out a
good performance.

“This is not my
first race of the season. My performance has been cool but I hope to
improve with each of the races as they come,” said the 60m
semi-finalist at last year’s World Indoor Championships in Doha.

At an earlier
meeting in Bordeaux, France a fortnight ago, Egwero finished third in
his race with a time of 6.81seconds but hopes to improve on that in
today’s race.

High hopes

Nigeria’s best
moment in the 60m event in recent times was at the 2008 IAAF World
Indoor Championships in Valencia, Spain when Olusoji Fasuba coasted to
victory in a time of 6.51 which was then a world leading time. Fasuba’s
win became the first indoor short dash World Championship title for
Africa.

Already Egwero is
hoping to match and even surpass the feat of his compatriot very soon
and for his coach back home in Nigeria, Paul Obodoechina, it is not
impossible for the Delta State born athlete.

“Every upcoming
athlete’s dream is to surpass previous records and for him to have such
an aspiration it is a welcome development. I believe he can because he
is improving day by day and he is very hard working too,” said the
coach.

Tamgho targeting
18m While many other top athletes will be aiming for top notch
performances later today, French triple jumper Teddy Tamgho has set an
ambitious high of no less than an 18-metre performance for himself.

The world indoor
champion and record holder (17.90m) is indeed in great form, judging by
his two competitions so far: 17.46m in Liévin for the regional meeting
in late January, and in Eaubonne last week, where he accomplished a
remarkable series – 17.33m, 17.59m, 17.56m, and 17.13m.

Coached by Cuban
long jump legend, Ivan Pedroso, the 21-year-old Frenchman refuses to
set any limit in order to fulfil his unknown potential.

“I fouled an 18 metre jump indoors in Bercy two years ago, so I know I can jump even farther now,” he told the IAAF website.

Arsenal’s soft underbelly cost them yet again on Saturday as,
not for the first time in the past year, precious points leaked away after a
second-half collapse.

Four-up after 26 minutes at Newcastle United with two goals from
Robin van Persie and one each for Theo Walcott and Johan Djourou, Arsenal’s
title challenge was gathering speed.

But what followed stunned the Gunners and left manager Arsene
Wenger worried about the psychological damage it could inflict.

Five minutes after the break Abou Diaby was sent off for shoving
Newcastle’s Joey Barton to the ground.

With their Momentum gone, Arsenal then completely fell apart as
the home side scored four times in 22 minutes to grab an unlikely 4-4 draw.

Barton netted twice from the penalty spot.

Psychological damage

“Mathematically (we lost) two points, but psychologically the
damage is bigger tonight because everyone is very disappointed in the dressing
room,” Wenger said. “Only the future will tell.” It would have been a long
journey back to London for Wenger’s side, particularly Diaby whose loss of
composure was the catalyst for his side’s implosion.

“Certainly, more psychologically than on the footballing side,”
Wenger said when asked if Diaby’s rush of blood to the head had been crucial.
“We were worried too much on protecting our lead after that because we were
down to 10 men.

“Instead of continuing to play, we invited pressure.

Afterwards we were very unlucky with some decisions as well. I
cannot do anything about that.” Manchester United’s later defeat by
Wolverhampton Wanderers allowed Arsenal to close to within four points of the
leaders but that would have been scant consolation for Wenger who also lost
Djourou to a knee injury.

“It’s very frustrating because we played a good game and we had
an opportunity to take three points in the title race,” Wenger added.
“Newcastle kept fighting, I knew at 4-0 the game was not over because it was
important to keep our nerves and continue to play.”

Diaby’s rush of blood to the head Wenger said Diaby’s red card
was “completely unnecessary” but said Barton should not even have been on the
pitch to tuck away the two penalties in Newcastle’s epic fightback.

“It was a completely unnecessary sending off and I believe
Barton was very lucky to stay on the pitch because of his tackle on Diaby,”
Wenger said.

“(Diaby) is very disappointed at the moment, it’s better not to
talk to him. He has to try to get over that. It’s a shame because he had a
great first half.

“(His reaction could be) explained by the fact that he has been
injured so many times from bad tackles that he lost a little bit quickly his
nerves. This boy has been out for a long time and many times.

Certainly the tackler provoked his reaction.”

While Wenger’s immediate reaction to his side’s capitulation was
fairly restrained, he will be concerned that another certain win was frittered
away.

Before Christmas they blew a two-goal lead against bitter rivals
Tottenham Hotspur to lose 3-2 and at the end of last season, with their title
hopes still alive, they conceded three times in the final 10 minutes to lose
3-2 at Wigan Athletic.

They also surrendered a two-goal lead against West Ham United
last season, giving further ammunition to the critics who accuse Arsenal of
lacking the steel they used to demonstrate in the days when Patrick Vieira
bossed the midfield.

Tiote’s first goal

While Arsenal were left deflated, Cheik Tiote’s late screamer
for Newcastle meant the club ended a difficult week on a high. Striker Andy
Carroll’s 35 million pounds deadline day sale to Liverpool was followed by
Shola Ameobi cracking his cheekbone in the midweek defeat by Fulham, sparking
fears of a slide towards the relegation zone.

Manager Alan Pardew, however, praised the fighting spirit shown
after a dreadful first half.

“When you’re 4-0 down after 26 minutes and you haven’t made a
challenge or got close to anyone you fear the worst, and I did fear the worst,”
Pardew told the club’s website.

“We were a disgrace in some things we did in the first half but
we more than made up for it. We went out there and played like lions in the
second half.”

Obinna Nsofor will have to wait until the end of
the season before finding out whether he will remain in England with West Ham
or head back to Italy to team up with Inter Milan.

Hammers, who have Nsofor on loan until the end of
the season, have the option to secure the Nigerian international on a permanent
deal.

But West Ham are currently in the middle of a
relegation battle with Sunday’s 1-0 defeat to Birmingham returning them to the
foot of the table with 24 points from 26 games, below Wolverhampton Wanderers,
who beat leaders Manchester United on Saturday, on goal difference.

Wigan Athletic complete the bottom three with 26
points while West Brom are just above the drop zone thanks to a marginally
better goal difference.

“He is a big player with big talent and we like
him. I think he wants to stay here,” said West Ham manger Avram Grant about
Nsofor.

“We like him but we will have to wait until the
end of the season.”

Nsofor’s recent performances for the Hammers
appear to suggest that he will be grabbing a deal come the end of the season
but that is if the East London side avoid relegation.

Slow start

Despite a slow start to his career with the Hammers, as well as
the ignominious dismissal against Birmingham in the League Cup semi-final,
Nsofor has managed to find his best form in recent weeks hitting the back of
the net five times in his last three games.

The highpoint for Nsofor arrived in the FA victory over
Nottingham Forest where he netted a hat-trick coupled with his trademark
somersaults and back flips.

And Grant has no issues with Nsofor’s mode of celebrating his
goals and hopes he gets to grab more goals.

“I don’t have a problem with his somersaults,” Grant said ahead
of Sunday’s loss to Birmingham. “I hope he will have a lot of reasons to do
them again this season.

“It took him time to adjust this season because he didn’t play much in
Italy, but he is playing well now.”

John Obi Mikel may not feature in Wednesday’s international
friendly against the Leone Stars of Sierra Leone owing to the state of the
playing surface of the match venue, according to reports.

The Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos, the venue for the game, has
an artificial playing surface, and that could be harmful for Mikel, who only
returned to club duties with Chelsea recently after undergoing surgery.

Mikel featured for Chelsea in Sunday’s hugely anticipated duel
against Liverpool, but according to a report on Kickoff.com, officials of the
Nigerian team have disclosed that Mikel, as well as his club’s medical crew,
have informed Super Eagles coach, Samson Siasia that the midfielder would be
unable to train or play on the TBS playing surface owing to his recent injury.

The Nigerian suffered a knee injury after a late challenge by
Arsenal’s Robin Van Persie back in December and was out of action for about
four weeks.

Pros and cons

Artificial turfs are more likely to cause injuries than natural
turfs, and in the case of Mikel, his doctors say they could cause his knee to
swell.

Also, some artificial surfaces cause burns or abrasions on skin
surfaces while most tend to be much hotter than natural grass when exposed to
the sun.

Exposure to the sun is not expected to be a problem on Wednesday
as the game is billed to kickoff at 7pm local time.

More so, in recent years, artificial playing surfaces using sand
or rubber infill, such as the ones situated at TBS, as well as at the nearby
training pitch of the National Stadium, have been developed and are generally
regarded as being about as safe to play on as natural grass.

Siasia arrives

While Mikel’s participation is in doubt, the match will be the
first game the Super Eagles will play under Siasia who flew into Lagos last
night in the company of all his coaching assistants except Salisu Abubakar.

Abubakar remained behind in Abuja to oversee Monday and
Tuesday’s training sessions of the home-based members of the Super Eagles ahead
of their upcoming international engagement in the United States before hitting
Lagos on match day.

Also expected last night were the duo of Peter Utaka and Ahmed
Musa who were both on target for their respective European clubs.

Osaze Odemwingie, who was in the West Brom side which suffered a 3-0 loss to
Manchester City on Saturday, was also expected last night, with the remainder
of the invited players expected to come in today, including Victor Anichebe.
Anichebe replaces the injured Shola Ameobi, while Inter Milan’s Joel Obi, takes
the place of Ikechukwu Ibenegbu who is also injured.