Nigeria Content Online

Rafa Nadal
pummelled Croatia’s Marin Cilic into submission with a brutish 6-2 6-4
6-3 victory to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals on Monday.

Nadal’s win under
the Melbourne floodlights kept alive the world number one’s bid to
become only the third man, and first since 1969, to hold all four grand
slam titles at once.

It also wiped away
any lingering concerns about the flu bug that took the edge off his
game in the first week and caused him to pour with sweat against
Bernard Tomic on Saturday.

“Before the match I
was scared, seriously,” Nadal told reporters after setting up a clash
with fellow Spaniard David Ferrer, the seventh seed.

“Scared in a good way. But I played my best match here by far.

“I didn’t sweat as much today,” added Nadal, who shed two and a half kilos in his previous win over Australian teenager Tomic.

“Before I was
sweating like crazy and it was a night session. Tonight I was able to
play with high intensity, more inside the court and more aggressive.”

Nadal looked far
sharper against Cilic, hustling to chase down balls and rifle them back
past the Croat, before striking his trademark gunslinger’s pose with a
bellowing cry of “Vamos!”

The first set was
over in a blur for 15th seed Cilic, a sitting duck for Nadal as he
attempted to slug it out toe-to-toe, only to get passed time and again
by the 2009 champion.

Nadal took the second by forcing Cilic into another wild forehand as conditions grew ever chillier on a packed Rod Laver Arena.

He bulldozed over
the finish line when his shattered opponent dumped a second serve
halfway up the net after two hours and 31 minutes.

“Tonight was pretty
cold and I didn’t push him too much,” said a rueful Cilic, who stunned
Nadal in their only previous meeting in Beijing in 2009.

“You couldn’t see how much he has in the tank.”

Sunday Bada, the technical director of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, has promised athletes a better year ahead.

Speaking about the
newly released calendar by the federation at the weekend, Bada said the
programmes were carefully drawn to ensure better results are achieved
both locally and internationally.

“The year is filled
with different activities both locally and internationally; amongst
other events we have the All African Games and the World Championships
coming up and we hope to do well in these events. Very soon we will be
calling for a close camping exercise where we will be monitoring our
athletes closely,” he said.

The Olympic Gold
medallist added that the federation had taken the importance of
grassroots development into consideration, hence the addition of such
programmes in its long list of events for the year.

Effective implementation

Members of the
Nigerian athletics community have commended the federation for finally
coming out with the events it intends to pursue for the year, they were
quick to add that implementation of the programmes alone will determine
the results the country will get at the end of the day.

Bamidele Taiwo, a
former 100m champion, said the new programme released by the AFN will
give the athletes better focus as they have been training blindly
before now.

“It’s good we now
have a calendar; you now know what is happening and where it is taking
place, this I believe will make the athletes better focused as they
strive for better performance this season,” he said.

For Kola Adebayo,
who coached Dorren Amata to an African Champion’s title, said the
challenge for the federation is implementing its programmes.

“I have taken a
good look at the programmes and I must commend them for the good job
they have done. However, we hope they will actually carry out these
programmes this time around. One major problem over the years has been
sponsorship; we need corporate bodies to come support sports if we will
move forward,” he said.

Olu Sule, a former
National triple jump champion and now coach said his major concern is
the political situation of the country, which he fears might affect the
federation’s calendar.

“You know this is
an election year and that has to be put into consideration, aside that,
the support the federation gets from some of the state government might
not be forthcoming as they will be focusing on the elections. Let’s see
how it goes but I believe it would be a good,” he said.

The federation hopes to kick start the year with the National All
Comers championship scheduled for February 18 and 19 at the Liberty
Stadium, Ibadan. The Second National All Comers holds in Lagos.

Former
Green Eagles Captain and now prospective candidate for the chairmanship
position of the Ogun State Football Association, Segun Odegbami, has
shunned the screening exercise for the election expected to hold today
in Abeokuta, the state capital.

While the other ten
contestants for various positions attended the screening exercise held
at Moshood Abiola Stadium, Abeokuta, Odegbami failed to show up – a
situation some believe may rule him out of contention. Investigations
revealed that, the former football star is now making frantic efforts,
to get the support of Ogun State Governor, Gbenga Daniel in order to
prevent the screening committee from disqualifying him from the
contest. According to sources, Odegbami said he could not attend the
screening because he had to attend to an important national assignment.

Odegbami response

When contacted,
Odegbami said he could not confirm if he is still in the race or not as
only the screening committee have the final say on who is to contest or
not.

While Odegbami did
not confirm or deny claims that he is lobbying his state governor for
help, he said it was not out of place to do so.

“I don’t see
anything wrong in lobbying people you know can help your cause; if you
want a position you have to lobby those you know can help you,” he
said.

At the time of this
report, the two contestants for chairmanship position are Segun
Odegbami and Gani Majekodunmi, a football administrator, while other
offices are also to be keenly contested by contestants who have all
passed the screening exercise held in a peaceful atmosphere.

Arrangements for the much awaited elections have been concluded with
delegates arriving the state capital from the different zones in the
state.

The
Super Falcons are billed to play a warm-up match with an Under-16 boys
team today in continuation of the team’s preparations for this year’s
FIFA Women’s World Cup. The match which comes up at the practice pitch
of the National Stadium in Abuja, serves as an avenue for the team’s
coaching crew to gauge the performance of the players.

Explaining the
reason for the decision to play with a boys team, the team’s chief
coach Eucharia Uche said: “It would be an opportunity for us to be able
to evaluate their performance, see how well they can play together and
we would then take it up from there.”

The Super Falcons
are currently on a two-week camping exercise in Abuja, but none of the
team’s stars to last year’s African Women Championship in South Africa
are present in camp as those invited are players who did not have the
opportunity of taking part in the AWC. So far, of the 40 players that
were invited to the two-week training programme specially designed to
integrate them with the other Falcons, 21 have reported to camp,
including six overseas based players. They are Emueje Oghiablef of
Russian club side Rossiyanka, KPV of Finland’s Funsho Alake and her
clubmates Obende Biodun and Hadijat Aliyu, Oyewusi Olushola of OB
Odense of Denmark, as well as Sarah Micheal of Swedish club Oroedro.
Also expected to fly into the country are the duo of Shemola Akinloshe
and Hope Orieka who are both flying in from Turkey.

Delighted with turnout

However, despite
the absence of some of the players called up to camp, the Super Falcons
coach expressed delight at the turnout of players.

“It is just a
two-week training camp exercise which is turning out to be fruitful
because the girls, especially the foreign based players are responding
very well to training,” she continued.

“I am pleased with
the turnout. It would give us the opportunity to access some players
who could not make it to the AWC last year.”

In a related
development, the Finnish Football Association has accepted to pitch the
Finland women’s national side against the Super Falcons in a friendly
billed for May; a situation that will see the African champions testing
their preparedness for the World Cup. And Uche is delighted with the
news.

“It would be an
opportunity for us to be able to gauge how prepared we are,” she
continued. “You know that the Scandinavian countries are known to have
a more developed women football organization.”

Arrangements are also underway to have the women’s national teams of
Hungary and Norway squaring up against the Super Falcons ahead of the
World Cup which gets underway in June in Germany.

Rafa
Nadal really hit his stride to reach his fifth straight quarter-final
at the Australian Open and will be keen to keep the momentum going
against fellow Spaniard David Ferrer on Wednesday.

The world number
one, on a quest to become the third man to hold all four grand slam
titles at once, has not yet lost a set at Melbourne Park this year but
anticipates a tough test in his 15th career meeting with his seventh
seeded compatriot.

“We know each other
perfectly, we played a lot of times against each other,” said the
24-year-old, who holds an 11-3 record against Ferrer but lost their
last grand slam clash at the 2007 U.S. Open. “I think he’s a fantastic
player to spend so many years in the top positions.

“That’s very difficult to do. So all respect to him. I know it’s gonna be a really, really difficult match.”

Victory in the
evening match on Rod Laver Arena would set up a semi-final with British
fifth seed Andy Murray or surprise package Ukrainian Alexandr
Dolgopolov, who play earlier.

Murray in intimidating form

Murray, last year’s
losing finalist, is the meanest player still in the tournament having
conceded just 21 games in four matches and not spent more than two
hours on court in any of his encounters.

The 23-year-old
Scot has been in intimidating form but will be well aware that the
Melbourne Park debutant Dolgopolov’s fierce ground-strokes and “funky”
style did for fourth seed Robin Soderling in the fourth round.

Like Murray, Vera
Zvonareva has played two grand slam finals and ended up a loser both
times but the Russian believes she may now have the maturity to claim
her maiden major.

The women’s second
seed opens day nine of the Australian Open with her quarter-final
against dangerous Czech left-hander Petra Kvitova, who upset local hope
Sam Stosur in round three.

Kim Clijsters will
be a strong favorite to beat Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska in the other
quarter-final and move into a sixth semi-final at the year’s opening
grand slam.

Radwanska, 21, is
playing her first tournament since October after having surgery on a
stress fracture in her foot and promised to play with freedom against
the three-time U.S. Open champion.

“I think now there is no pressure,” she said. “I just feel very good
after my very short off-season. She’s a great champion, so I have
nothing to lose. So I’m just going to try and play my best tennis and
try to win.

The
Ogun State Football Association (FA) yesterday elected a new executive
headed by Gani Majekodunmi and eight others to run the affairs of the
association for the next four years. The elections were held at Alake
Sports Centre, Ijeja, Abeokuta the state capital.

The new chairman
defeated former Green Eagles Captain, Segun Odegbami who had earlier
shunned the screening exercise of the electoral committee, held 24
hours before the election.

Though he did not file a letter of withdrawal, the former Nigerian international also did not attend the election yesterday.

The election was
conducted by the Kunle Oluwusi-led electoral committee and supervised
by national officers of the Nigeria Football Federation, as well as
stakeholders in the football administration and sports journalists.

The results

Majekodunmi won the
election by polling fifteen of the seventeen votes cast by accredited
delegates. In a similar vein, all other elected officers won the
election convincingly. They include; Nojimu Lasisi who was elected
Vice-Chairman after his opponent also failed to show up for screening.
Others include J.A Adeola, Lekan Monsuru, Akinwunmi Kolawole, Kolawole
Popoola, Johnson Oluwaseyi and Gbenga Segun, as members of the board of
the FA.

In his acceptance
speech, Majekodunmi who is a member of the National League Interim
management Committee said the new board will work tirelessly to develop
grassroots football through the creation of an in-depth scouting
network in the state, so as to source for talent within the state,
adding that training and re-training of all stakeholders will be given
proper attention.

“I want to assure
you that my committee would adhere strictly to the NFF status in all
respect as we are in a position to advise government in terms of policy
formulation that would assist football development in Ogun State and
Nigeria at large. I want to assure you all that collectively we will
move Ogun State forward,” he said.

New executives for Referees Council

The Ogun State
Football Referees Council has also elected new executive. They include;
Sunday Oladipo as Chairman, Oba Odunsi (Deputy Chairman), Lawrence
Babatunde(Vice-Chairman 1), Christopher Adu(Vice-Chairman 2), David
Olasore(General Secretary), Amos Alani(Assistant General Secretary).

Maigari’s warning

In a related
development, the NFF has warned the FAs of Imo and Yobe States to
conduct elections into it executive committee or risk sanctions.

Aminu Maigari, NFF
President speaking on Tuesday said that failure to conduct elections in
Imo State may attract sanctions to the top Nigeria Premier League Club,
Heartland FC of Owerri before the end of January. “There is no reason
why the elections should not hold. One or two states cannot hold the
entire nation to ransom. All the other states have concluded their
polls with only one or two who have already fixed date for their own
elections”.

Maigari further
said both states have been formally notified, “I have directed that
letters be sent to the FA of the two states as we are not going to be
condoning anymore excuses”.

Maigari said the issue of Yobe was different as they had conducted
elections before: “Yobe State claimed to have conducted their elections
but we found out they did not do this the proper way,” said Maigari. An
electoral committee headed by Kamar Abdulkadir had earlier conducted an
election in Damaturu on January 7 with Mohammed Sani Abdulrahman
emerging as winner. The elections were later voided when it was
discovered that they were not conducted according to the NFF statutes.

Nigeria’s
flagbearers in both the Champions League and Confederation Cup
tournaments have been mandated to produce, among other things, security
guarantees and the medical certificates of their players by Africa’s
football governing body, CAF. Enyimba and Kano Pillars will be
representing Nigeria at the CAF Champions League, while the duo of
Kaduna United and Sunshine Stars will be doing likewise at the CAF
Confederation Cup.

Enyimba and Kano
Pillars will commence their respective quests in the Champions League
this weekend with the latter taking on Mighty Barolle of Liberia in
Monrovia, with Enyimba, champions of Africa in 2003 and 2004, locking
horns with Michel de Ouenze of Congo in Brazzaville. And according to
the assistant general secretary in charge of competitions at the
Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Mohammed Sanusi, valid medical and
insurance papers, as well as security guarantees are mandatory for
these clubs in line with directives from the continental football body.

Speaking on Tuesday
in Abuja at a meeting with representatives of two of the four clubs,
Sanusi informed Enyimba’s chairman, Felix Anyansi-Agwu and his Kaduna
United counterpart, Sabo Babayaro that the stipulated conditions for
taking part in CAF competitions must be strictly adhered to by the
teams. Kano Pillars and Sunshine Stars failed to send representatives.

Medical certificates

“Medical
certificates of fitness and insurance that cover all the 25 players
that you have registered are very important,” Sanusi said. “CAF will
not accept anything less.

“You must also be
prepared to extract from your state government a letter of security
guarantee for visiting teams, duly signed by the state governor.

“You must also be
ready to take good care of your players and officials while playing at
home and abroad, as well as the players and officials of visiting
teams, and also fulfil the mandatory obligations for match officials,”
he added.

The clubs are also
mandated to provide standard playing pitches, as well as good and
functional dressing rooms at their home ground. In addition, a
functional fax machine and photocopier must be at the stadium along
with adequate security before, during and after every match. Also at
the meeting, the NFF presented new CAF flags to the clubs present.

In a related development, CAF has released the names of the match
officials for this weekend’s matches involving Kano Pillars and
Enyimba. Officials for the game in Monrovia are from Guinea Bissau
while the officials for the tie in Brazzaville are from Chad. The
winner at the end of the two-legged tie between Kano Pillars and Mighty
Barolle will come up against the winner of the game between Morocco’s
Wydad Casablanca and Ghana’s Aduana Stars in the next round, while the
winner of the Enyimba-Ouenze game will square up against either Union
Sportive de Bitam of Gabon or Les Astres de Douala of Cameroon in the
next round.

Talented
Boys FC have emerged winners of the 2011 edition of the Street Strikers
Football Championship after defeating Owoya Babes in the final.

The city-wide
championship organised by Red Bull, ended this past weekend at the
popular Gbagada Playing Field and saw Talented Boys emerging 2-0
winners over their opponents.

The six-a-side game
that brought the three-day soccer fiesta to an end did not produce any
goal at full time. And it took a penalty shoot-out to separate the two
sides.

Earlier, Manchester
FC had defeated Choice FC 3-2 to claim third place in the semi-final
match, also through a penalty shoot-out.

At the end of the
tournament, the participants expressed their joy at being allowed to
showcase their talent with proper organisation.

The tournament saw participating teams featuring six players and two substitutes per game.

Speaking on the reason behind the continuation of the event which
also took place in 2010, a representative of Red Bull noted that “the
2010 edition was well received with a lot of positive feedback and so
we decided to once again give people a chance to experience the thrills
associated with the nationally loved sport.”

Obinna
Nsofor will hope to lead his club, West Ham to a first cup final in 30
years as the Hammers try to save their season by making it to Wembley.
The Nigerian was shown a straight red card at Upton Park in the first
leg of the Carling Cup semi-finals. And the sending off almost
jeopardised the Hammers’ chances. He was sent off for lashing out at
Larsson behind play and that handed the initiative to the Blues but the
Hammers had the last laugh as they won the game 2-1.

Today, away to St.
Andrews, West Ham will be boosted by the fact that Nsofor is available
– he has served his suspension. The Nigerian striker, who was a force
when West Ham beat Manchester United 4-0 in November, seems to keep his
very best performances for cup games as he assisted three of the
Hammers’ goals that night.

Another player, who
has re-discovered some form of late is wing-back, Julien Faubert and he
believes that their performances in attack will be what will save the
season.

“It is a nice
semi-final and we have the chance to go to Wembley,” said the French
man, who impressed against Everton on Saturday, confirming the Hammers’
desire to get to the hallowed ground of English football.

“It will be a hard game away in Birmingham, but I think we can go there and do something.

“If we go there to
play football and try to score, I think we have a chance. If we try to
defend, we can concede a goal, so I think we have to go there and work
hard and then we’ll have every chance to win and go through.”

First leg

West Ham took a
first-half lead at Upton Park through Mark Noble, but Liam Ridgewell’s
reply followed by a straight red card to Victor Obinna almost turned
the tide in Birmingham’s favour with just over half an hour remaining.

However, a blunder
from Birmingham goalkeeper Ben Foster in the 78th minute gave the
Hammers an unlikely 2-1 win in the first leg. Foster failed to gather
Carlton Cole’s tame shot, thereby handing under-fire Avram Grant’s side
a valuable lead heading into today’s second leg.

Tricky tie

The game is
expected to be a tough one as Birmingham will be out to rebound quickly
from the 5-0 thrashing they received at Old Trafford on Saturday.
Under-pressure manager Alex McLeish said the squad will be focused on
today’s game. The Blues are also pining to make a first major cup final
in 10 years.

“As a team we don’t
like losing and so we’ll be hurting for a good few hours but we have to
dust ourselves down and focus on the game on Wednesday,” said McLeish,
speaking to Birmingham website.

It is also another
opportunity for the Midlands side to move on in the current season,
which has been poor compared to last season. “It’s a huge opportunity
for us. We will give it our all.”

2010 World Cup final referee Howard Webb will take charge of the match, which will be his 31st for the season.

Dimitar Berbatov struck twice as Premier League leaders Manchester United recovered from two goals down to beat promoted Blackpool 3-2 in a thrilling game on Tuesday.

United were staring at their first defeat of the season after Blackpool dominated the first half and Charlie Adam corners created headed goals for defender Craig Cathcart and striker DJ Campbell.

United manager Alex Ferguson sent on Ryan Giggs as a substitute and the veteran’s influence crushed Blackpool’s dreams of a major upset in their biggest game for 40 years when Berbatov volleyed in on 72 minutes and substitute Javier Hernandez equalised with a cool finish.

With Blackpool’s players visibly tiring, Berbatov snatched all three points for his side with a clinical strike in the 88th minute to send United five points clear of Arsenal at the top of the table.

“We always have a chance with the spirit we have in the club,” Ferguson told ESPN. “We didn’t play well in the first half but you know we will always keep going.

“We knew they would get tired in the second half, we kept playing our football and got some more penetration. Ryan gave us composure, Hernandez was a threat with the timing of his runs and Berbatov has been doing that for us all season.

“In the end it doesn’t matter how you get the win.”

It was a match that felt like a cup tie, such was the obvious disparity between the sides.

The team sheets came out on a simple black and white printout rather than the colourful document produced at Old Trafford.

The stand shook when the fans leaped around in celebration, while Blackpool manager Ian Holloway had said in his programme notes he had to “commandeer the chairman’s office because my office is a little too small to be entertaining Sir Alex”.

INFERIORITY COMPLEX

Any inferiority complex was quickly put aside after the opener which had fairytale written all over it as Cathcart headed in at the far post against the club where he spent his youth days before being sold to Blackpool in the close season.

Campbell’s goal came after another Adam corner was headed on inadvertently by Darron Gibson into the Blackpool striker’s path for his sixth goal in his last seven games.

It looked like a major upset was on the cards with United struggling to create any clear chances and apparently on the verge of losing their unbeaten record.

Blackpool were denied what looked like a certain penalty following a clumsy foul by United defender Rafael da Silva and the replacement of Wayne Rooney with Hernandez midway through the second half livened up the visitors’ attack.

Berbatov’s first strike proved the turning point and Hernandez calmly converted Gigg’s fine pass before the Bulgarian’s 19th league goal of the season completed the sort of revival that champions are made of.

Rafael was carried off with what looked like a nasty injury following a clash of heads and after he had received lengthy treatment on the pitch, United hung on through 10 minutes of stoppage time to secure only their third away league win of the season.

In the day’s other Premier League match, Aston Villa won 2-1 at Wigan Athletic through goals by Gabriel Agbonlahor and Ashley Young to climb to 13th in the table.