Nigeria Content Online

The
President Cup Polo Tournament taking place in Lagos enters its final
stage this week. The event, which galloped off at the Ribadu Road Polo
Ground in Ikoyi last weekend has yet to throw up any clear leaders as
all nine competing teams jostle closely for the top prize.

Team Hassan
Katsina, losers to Team Dangote in the opening game of the tournament,
fell again by 41/2-8 to a resilient Team Ogunbanjo in its second match
of the tournament. The victorious Ogunbanjo team will face Team Dangote
on Friday.

In the first
encounter slated for Friday, Team Akinkugbe which secured a slim 51/2-5
win over Team Raccah in its first game of the tournament, will know its
fate when it faces a Team Owen.

Team Owen played out a 5-5 draw with Team Raccah in its first match of the tournament.

The hard fighting
Team Amusan, which secured full points in its opening 6-3 victory over
Team Oshogwemoh before being held to a draw by Team Owen in its last
game, will also take to the field on Friday.

Competition mode

Another team hoping
to advance into the semi-final is Team Churchward, whose feisty 5-5
draw with Team Amusan is one of the highpoints of the tournaments, face
Team Oshegwemoh, who are eager to record their first victory of the
tournament.

All the semi-final
games of the President Cup’2011 are billed for Saturday, while the
third place game and the final will be decided on Sunday at the
legendary Ribadu Road Ground, before a full house of top dignitaries
that include the Lagos State Governor, Raji Fashola who is expected as
the Special Guest of honour.

According to Ayo
Olashoju, the Lagos Polo Tournament Manager, the tournament, organised
by the Polo Management Committee (PMC) of the club is part of the build
up to the Lagos International Polo Tournament scheduled for next month.

PMC Secretary and Grounds Member, Bode Makanjuola said the President
Cup, which comes on the heels of the inaugural Santa Cup tournament, is
designed to put Lagos players and horses in their best competitive
shape ahead of next month’s moth International Polo tournament.

The first edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World ranking of the New Year has seen the Super Eagles remain on the 32nd spot.

A lot of teams on the log also maintained the positions they occupied during the last ranking.

The Super Eagles
had moved up one spot to finish the year 2010 in 32nd position. The
ranking turned out to be the worst year-end finish for the country’s
national team in the last six years.

Already, many are
expectant that the new Super Eagles coach, Samson Siasia, will be able
to change the fortunes of the team, which was formerly ranked very high
among football playing nations.

Spain continues to
lead the way as the world’s best team, ahead of the Netherlands and
Germany. The only change in the first 30 countries saw Egypt who
remains Africa’s best team swap places with Croatia. Egypt dropped to
the tenth spot, while Croatia moved to ninth place.

The seemingly
unchanged ranking was due to inaction at national-team level in most
confederations. Only 35 friendly matches have been taken into account
in the current ranking, 23 of which were played before the turn of the
year.

The country’s
national team will however soon get busy as it is expected to take part
next month in the Presidents Cup in the United States, the federation
has also said the February 9 FIFA friendly window will also be utilised
even though no particular team has been named for the Eagles.

Siasia gives up on Onuoha

In other
development hopes of Sunderland on-loan defender Nedum Onuoha playing
for Nigeria may soon fizzle out as the Super Eagles coach, Samson
Siasia may have given up on the former England U-21 captain.

Siasia who was
reported by local media to have had a bust-up with Onuha denied the
claim but said he will never call on Onuoha to play for the Eagles
again.

“Until he decides
to call me and tell me that he is interested in playing for this
country I will never call him anymore,” he said.

Siasia, who may
have be angered by the player’s attitude during his last visit to
England where he met with other England-based Nigeria players like
Victor Moses and Shola Ameobi felt he was disrespected by Onuoha.

“I called Nedum (Onuoha) to know if he wants to play for Nigeria and
the only thing he said to me was that he should be left out of the next
game (of the Nigerian national team). He didn’t answer my question and
that is a serious disrespect I must say because we feel he is a good
player,” he said.

Segun Ikuesan has been appointed administrative secretary of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Africa Zone-3.

FIBA Africa Zone-3
is made up of eight West Africa countries-Benin republic; Burkina Faso;
Côte d’Ivoire; Ghana; Liberia; Niger Republic; Nigeria and Togo- and is
saddled with the job complimenting the role of FIBA Africa.

Ikuesan, whose job entails overseeing the day-to-day activities of the secretariat promised to do all that he can.

“I will be working
as part of a team and basically what we will be doing is to see that
all programmes organised by the body are well executed and I promise to
do all that I can within my ability to promote and develop the game
within the region”.

Ikuesan is
currently the Media Officer of the Nigeria Basketball Federation
(NBBF); he is also a correspondent for FIBA Africa, FIBA World, and the
world’s top basketball website – eurobasket.com. Ikuesan is also a
commentator with Africa’s leading pay-television – SuperSport and
Media/Communications.

Muktar Adamu
Khaleh, the current first vice-president of the NBBF and chairman of
the Nigeria Technical Commission, was appointed as President; Coffi
Tonon Pierre of Benin was named Secretary General, while Joseph Gerard
Amon of Cote d’Ivoire was appointed as overseer of the technical
commission.

Others include,
Mamadou Belem of Burkina Faso as chairman of the competition
commission, Gamal Idrisu of Ghana is in charge of the
Junior\development council, Togolese Lawson Nadouvi heads the Medical
Council while Liberian Pratt Fred heads the Media Council with Patricia
Lorougnon from Cote d’Ivoire a co-opted member.

They are expected to run the affairs of the zone till the regional body’s next congress in 2014.

As the transfer window enters the tenth day, it is proving to be too small for Nigerian players to squeeze through.

The only transfer
good news is that of nomadic footballer, Sani Kaita who is set to join
Greek club Iraklis on a six-month loan deal. From a report on
mtnfootball.com, “The move is a six-month loan deal from Monaco and it
is now 100 per cent certain he is finally coming to Greece this week.”
Kaita has been playing at Ukrainian club Mettalist, also on loan from
Monaco. Before moving to Mettalist, the defensive midfielder had loan
stints with Kuban Krasnodar, Lokomotiv Moscow, and Alania Vladikavkaz –
all in Russia, after his major move to French club side, Monaco in 2008
from Dutch club, Sparta Rotterdam.

2009 U-20 captain,
Odion Ighalo and Chuka Okaka have moved on loan from their parent clubs
of Udinese and Roma. Ighalo has been loaned to Granada, a second
division club in Spain while Okaka, loaned to Bari, scored on his debut
on Saturday.

A player that is
likely to move in this window is Peter Utaka, younger brother of John
Utaka. The younger Utaka is wanted by English Premier League side, West
Ham in a £2.5m deal. The Odense Ob of Denmark striker has been the
highest goal scorer for his club in the past two seasons. He has been
on the radar of some clubs in Western Europe after his goal scoring
exploits. He has scored 56 goals in 100 appearances for Odense and
there are also rumours that he is also wanted by Mark Hughes at Fulham.
He amassed 18 Goals in 33 Games in the 2009/10 season.

And as Utaka is
planning his exit from Odense, Solomon Okoronkwo is planning his move
there after his contract at FC Saturn in Russia was terminated due to
financial problems.

Okoronkwo’s career
has been on a decline since the heady days when he was signed on by
Hertha Berlin from Udoji United. He helped the U-23 team to a silver
medal finish in the football event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Also, Obiorah
Nwankwo and Joel Obi will have their leases at the Inter Milan training
ground terminated at the end of this month. They are expected to move
to Seria A side, AC Parma, as they are co-owned by the two Italian club
sides.

Meanwhile,
Everton’s Yakubu Aiyegbeni is looking to resurrect both his club and
national careers and that may see him moving to Leicester City in the
championship to play under former England coach, Goran Erikkson. The
only stumbling block seems to be his £60,000 weekly salary.

Other transfers

Generally, there
has a been a lull in transfer activity as clubs show caution in
splashing cash that has not been readily available. Apart from
Manchester City, which shelled out £27 million to purchase Edin Dzeko
from Wolfsburg, other clubs are trying to do loan deals. David Beckham
has arrived at Tottenham Hotspurs and could have a two-month loan deal
worked out with the London club. AC Milan have taken on
enfant-terrible, Antonio Cassano, after his contract with Sampdoria was
terminated while Juventus signed former Italian striker, Luca Toni.

Reports broke on Sunday that Arsenal captain, Cesc Fabregas has
agreed to join his boyhood club, Barcelona in the summer. But Arsenal
manager, Arsene Wenger has denied the transfer deal and after the 1-1
draw with Leeds United the Gunners manager said, “I have a good sense
of humour, but I don’t understand this one.”

As
part of efforts to fortify her squad, Super Falcons coach, Uche
Eucharia, has invited 40 players for a special camping exercise.

Eight goal keepers
and 32 players have been invited to the camp, which opens in Abuja
beginning from the January 20. All members of the Falcons team that
were in South Africa last year for the African Women’s Championship
(AWC) were however not invited.

Uche explained that this was part of her plans to prosecute a victorious expedition at the 2011 FIFA Women World Cup.

“This camping
exercise is the first of its kind. I call it training and screening
camp. It will help me see the level of fitness of the players that I
will use for the World Cup. The camping is for those who had no
opportunity to join us when we were preparing for the AWC,” she said of
the camping exercise which is meant to last a fortnight.

“We missed some
players at the AWC last year because their clubs refused to release
them. This time around however, it will not be like that because all
the foreign based players are currently on holiday here in Nigeria,”
she told NEXT Sports.

Nigeria has been
placed in the same group with Canada, France and world champions,
Germany, in Group A of the World Cup, which begins in June in Germany.

Getting the best

After the Falcons were thrashed 8-0 in a friendly by Germany, Uche knows that only the best can stand a chance at the World Cup.

“We need players who are physically strong and technically good. The camp will help us select the best for Nigeria,” she said.

The Nigeria
football federation (NFF) is in talks with authorities in England and
Germany with regards reaching an agreement for a foreign camp for the
Falcons ahead of the tournament.

“We want our girls
to acclimatise to the weather conditions in Germany,” NFF president,
Aminu Maigari told a sports website recently.

“We want the girls
to be ready in all respects when the World Cup begins. We are talking
to the necessary authorities and right now we are set to select either
Germany or England,” the NFF president said.

Nigeria’s opening match at the FIFA Women’s World Cup will be against France on June 26 in Sinsheim, Germany.

Former
U.S. Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro won his first match in a year
on Monday, coming through a 200-minute test of his fitness with a 6-7
7-6 7-6 victory over Feliciano Lopez at the Sydney International.

The 22-year-old
Argentine has played only two tournaments since having surgery last May
on a wrist injury that hampered his Australian Open campaign last year,
losing in the first round in both.

One of those
defeats was to Lopez in Tokyo but on Monday at the Sydney Olympic
centre, wildcard Del Potro got his revenge after a monumental battle
with the sixth seeded Spaniard.

“We played a
beautiful match, very close,” said Del Potro, who will play German
Florian Mayer, a 7-5 6-0 winner over British wildcard James Ward, in
the next round.

“Feliciano is a
fantastic player on this kind of surface, and I played good tennis
again. I felt good all match, and finally I won a match (after) one
year.”

Del Potro, who won
the 2009 U.S. Open final against Roger Federer, showed great
determination after trailing by a set and again in the second set
tiebreak.

The third set was
just as close and Del Potro was forced to save six break points before
appropriately clinching victory with one of his savage flat forehands.

Ranked fifth in the
world before his injury, Del Potro said he was a long way from his best
and needed a lot more playing time to get back to that level.

“I need work to keep going in this road,” he said.

“You know, it’s a long road to be in the top 10 again, but I’m ready to try.

“I feel happy for
my victory, for everything … I really like this life, you know. If
you can play without pain, it’s much better.” Earlier, defending
champion and second seed Marcos Baghdatis pulled out of the tournament
with a groin strain.

The Cypriot, beaten
finalist at the 2006 Australian Open, said he did not want to risk
worsening the problem before the first grand slam of the year, which
starts next Monday.

“I’m a bit
disappointed,” said the world number 21. “I’m the defending champion
here and I wanted to play so much… It was not an easy one, but
sometimes you have to take decisions that are not easy.”

Stosur downs Wickmayer

In the women’s
draw, local grand slam hopeful Sam Stosur delighted the centre court
crowd by downing Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 7-5 6-4.

The world number
six, a French Open finalist last year, will meet twice grand slam
champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the second round.

“There’s not too many rewards when you get through matches in these kinds of tournaments,” Stosur said.

“Everyone is pretty tough … We’ve played each other plenty of
times, and I’ve had wins and losses. Hopefully tomorrow I can play like
I did today, and hopefully it’ll be a good one for me.” Two other
women’s seeds had more disappointing days, fifth seed Francesca
Schiavone losing 6-7 6-1 6-2 to Russian Alisa Kleybanova and sixth seed
Jelena Jankovic also beaten in three sets, 7-5 2-6 6-3 by France’s
Aravene Rezai.

Exactly
four years ago, I was elected, after winning an election I did not
campaign for, as the chairman of the Residents Association of the Lagos
State Development Property Corporation (LSDPC) Estate, situated on
Glover Street, Ebute Meta, Lagos, Nigeria.

This estate,
referred to as “mini Nigeria”, consists of Nigerians from all the
geographical zones of this country and some foreigners, with very high
and intimidating profiles. There, you have revered leaders of various
faith-based organisations, diplomats, bank executives, lecturers,
senior civil servants, politicians, respected learned men/women of the
judiciary, successful business men and women medical practitioners and
of course a lot of the socially disadvantaged, erroneously referred to
“area boys”. I immediately recognised the Chairmanship position as a
God-given assignment and an opportunity to serve humanity.

I had lived in this
estate for eight years, so could not claim to be ignorant of the needs
and challenges facing the residents. I had also witnessed the regimes
of three former Chairmen and actively participated in various
socio-political and spiritual activities of the estate, hence the
residents were expecting a lot from me. I recognised this and
immediately decided to make a difference. I did not see myself as a
chairman; I saw and made myself a piece of carpet or “foot mat”, on
which residents could wipe their feet.

I hope Taoheed
Adedoja is reading this testimony. Wisdom is the principal thing. I set
up a very vibrant kitchen cabinet, which comprised of those regarded as
radicals – always in opposition to the rules and regulations of the
Residents’ Association, the youth and the “area boys and girls”. I also
initiated the establishment of the Block Representatives Council. But
it was not easy at all. These initiatives were aggressively resisted by
majority of members of my executive committee- especially, my second in
command, but because I have God on my side and majority of the
residents keyed into the vision, we succeeded in institutionalising the
fresh ideas, using the so-called radicals/minority, to actualise our
dreams concerning issues of fund raising, renovation/construction of
roads, power supply/illumination of estate roads, security and
employment of manual workers to handle environmental sanitation of the
estate.

It is on record
that my tenure as Chairman was the shortest ever – I spent just a year
of the first two year term, but God used us to transform that estate.
Residents voluntarily paid their annual dues. We never blocked or
locked the gates in order to enforce any kind of compliance. The
radicals and area boys tremendously assisted us, because I made myself
very vulnerable. To God be the glory. I hope someone from the estate
will read this and please verify the veracity or otherwise.

Starting revival

I have used the
above testimony, as a follow up to last week’s write up, written
directly to the Sports Minister and Chairman of the National Sports
Commission (NSC). I am sure regular readers of this column will by now
realise the fact that I do not belong to the class of writers to be
classified as critics. Far from it, please. When I write something that
seems to be like that, take it as the barking of a dog, which most
times, is the sound of fright and not power or annoyance. When a dog is
annoyed, it bites. I do not bite anymore, I bless and that is what I
pray to be to this great nation – a blessing and a source of solutions
to the problems confronting Nigerian sports.

I know and believe
that I have the divine mandate of the Creator of sports – the greatest
sports man, (apologies to Segun Odegbami), to achieve this mandate.
That is why for instance, I believe that a revival to bring back the
lost glory of sports in this country has started. It does not matter
what anybody is doing or saying right now in the contrary. I belong to
the category of sports victors and not victims. Victims, according to
Ben Carson, walk through sand, look down and see dirt, while victors
discover the ingredients (potentials), for the construction of a
castle. There is the need, Taoheed, for you to see the ingredients in
the sand, not the dirt.

Success is the
willingness to do what the average person has not done or is not
willing to do. Taoheed, you can by any standard not be referred to as
an average sports technocrat, never. A Professor of sports anywhere in
the world is not an average or ordinary sports man. You have also
succeeded politically; hence, it will amount to a travesty of the
highest magnitude, if your tenure does not effectively impact on
Nigerian sports. You have what it takes to succeed if only you will not
“box” yourself up. We cannot afford to see you fail.

I really appreciate
all the on-line comments and other reactions to last week’s column. The
negative and positive comments are all needed to guide and educate me,
especially as I cannot claim to know it all. I therefore thank you all.
Special mention must however be made of the long chat I had with Pat
Itanyi, who called in from America. Thank you my darling sister. And to
the Tennis Ambassador, also domiciled in the U.S.A. – Sadiq Abdullahi,
I also say a very “thank you”. I can feel the great passion the two of
you have for your beloved country and all I can tell you for now is
that you have an ally you can bank on here in Nigeria.

Together, we will contribute to efforts to save sports in Nigeria.

Please pray fellow sports loving Nigerians, for the success of
Taoheed Adedoja. We cannot afford to see him fail. He must succeed.
Pray that God should please uproot all the plants He has not planted in
Nigerian sports – by fire and by force. It is well.

No
fewer than eight players of newly crowned WAFU Cup Champions, Sharks FC
were yesterday involved in a motor accident on their way to Jos, to
play a rescheduled week 9 Nigeria Premier League game.

Media Officer for
Sharks, Confidence Idaa said the team was initially sceptical of the
trip going by the tension in the Jos but was asked to honour the march
by the NPL which they could not object to.

The players said to be injured include Gomo Unduku, Ernest Tiehbanyo, Odinga Odinga, Fortune Chukwudi, Confidence Idaa, Terry Envoh, Chuks Ezeji, and Kennedy Boboye amongst others.

The latest accident
compounds the bad start to the year in the football fraternity which is
still grappling with the sad news of the death of former Super Eagles
defender, Uche Okafor, who Dallas Police recently confirmed committed
suicide.

According to Idaa the injured players and officials are currently receiving treatment in a private hospital in Abuja.

“We are grateful to
God that no life was lost in the accident, those that sustained minor
injuries were promptly attended to by the medical staff of the team
while others with serious injuries are receiving treatments in Abuja
after we carried out scans and ex-trays to determine the level of their
injuries” he said.

How it happened

Idaa said the
team’s bus, suddenly clogged off the road while on the Abuja Keffi axis
and somersaulted thrice at about 2 a.m. yesterday morning. “The bus is
a write-off now, I cannot say the driver was over speeding or not
because I was not actually by his side but in all we give thanks that a
team that was just celebrating the feat of winning its first trophy in
38 years some days ago has not been thrown into mourning,” he said.

Sharks FC striker,
Victor Ezeji, also confirmed the accident to SuperSport while counting
himself lucky to escape unhurt. “I am still in shock. I have never
witnessed anything like this in my life. I thought I was going to die,”
he said. The player who escaped unhurt from the incident is however
just one of the lucky ones as quite a number of the contingent are
injured.

The aftermath

Sharks opponent,
Plateau United, through its spokesperson said they were unhappy with
the news, according Tongshinung Goteng, the situation in the past where
teams have lied about accidents still gives his teams some reason to
doubt the claim.

“Sometimes you
don’t know when teams are lying or not, we were ready for the match but
it’s unfortunate it had to be postponed because of the news of the
accident. If indeed they had an accident then we are very sorry for
that,” Goteng said.

Plateau United were set for the game against Sharks on Monday but
the game is definitely going to be postponed for the fourth time.

Africa’s youngsters
yesterday began their quest for honours in the African U-17
Championship; Rwanda 2011. The tournament which runs through January
22, 2011 also serves as the continent’s qualifiers for the FIFA Cadet
World Cup and for the umpteenth time, Nigeria is missing in action.

It would recalled
that the Golden Eaglets failed in their bid at qualifying for the event
after being knocked out of the race by the cadet team from the
Democratic Republic of Congo, the tie which they lost 3-1 over two legs.

The country was
also in a similar situation in 2008 as it failed to make it to the
Algiers 2009 edition under coach Alphonsus Dike who after winning the
first leg 2-0 in Port Harcourt surprisingly lost 0-3 to Benin Republic
in the return leg and thus crashed out of the qualifiers only to
qualify for the World Cup by virtue of being host.

For many, the
continuous ouster of the U-17 national team from the African tournament
is unacceptable going by the abundant talents that abound in the
country and the exceptional performances recorded in the past at this
stage both on the continent and in the world. Nigeria and Brazil have
the highest number of FIFA U-17 World Cup titles (3) and the Golden
Eaglets have two African titles to their credit.

Playing by the rules

While accepting the
responsibility for his team’s failure, coach of the Golden Eaglet’s,
Monday Odigie, says he still prides himself for daring to do things
differently by sticking to strictly football players who were under 17
years of age.

“Tournaments like
the U-17 is a developmental programme in which talents are to be
discovered and nurtured, it shouldn’t be all about winning. That, I
believe, is the only way we can find capable replacements for our aging
players. My ambition was to qualify the team but as it turned out, we
were not able to make it at the long run,” he said.

He continued: “For
the very first time, we had a team of players majorly drawn from
secondary schools and academies across the country and there was no
single player playing in the league as it used to be the case before. I
would have been happy to see them showcase their talents at the Africa
Championships like their other mates.” he said

Looking ahead

Already, Odigie
revealed that he has submitted his new set of programmes to the Nigeria
Football Federation and only expecting their go-ahead to begin
preparations in earnest for future engagements.

“I am always an
advocate of early preparations and that I believe is the key to
succeeding. We have seen and learnt from the mistakes of the past and
we would want to guide against that in our future endeavours,” he said.

Despite the earlier
setback, Odigie maintained that he would stick to playing by the rules;
which is to use only players still within the specified age-limit.

“If you know me
well, you would see me at different locations where youth tournaments
are been played like the Principals’ Cup, Shell Cup etc, those are
examples of tournaments where one can get genuinely young talents and
that is what we will be doing not just going for old players all in the
name of getting results,” Odigie reiterated.

Previously touted
to assist Super Eagles coach Samson Siasia, Odigie says he has been
using his time to better his knowledge of the game with refresher
courses here and there.

Defending the crown

Meanwhile, as the
ninth edition of the CAF U-17 Championship finally kicked off in Rwanda
yesterday, Lamin Sambou, Gambian U-17 coach, says he has no doubt his
team will retain the African crown. The Baby Scorpions are the
defending champions of the biennial cadet championship, and following
an initial triumph on home soil in 2005, Sambou says his charges are
ready for the challenge backed by a 10-day training camp in Egypt.

For the Baby
Scorpions trainer, the preparations in Egypt has placed them in a good
stead to complete a hat-trick of triumphs, making them the first-ever
country to achieve that feat.

“This is a strong
team in all departments. I have been working with these boys day and
night and I know what they are each capable of giving for their
country,” Sambou was quoted by West Coast Radio, a local radio station.

“We have great confidence in our team and our chances in Rwanda,” he added.

The Gambians will
begin their defence against Congo today; play Mali 72-hours later
before engaging Cote d’Ivoire on January 15 for a place at the next
round.

Knowing very well
that a place at the last four automatically earns them a spot at the
FIFA U-17 World Cup slated for Mexico later in the year, Sambou assured
that his charges will go all out to realize that dream.

“We will certainly qualify,” he declared in a confident tone. In the other match for today, Cote d’Ivoire will take on Mali

Peace and harmony
appear to have become extinct in Nigerian football after the recent
face-off between the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the Nigeria
Premier League (NPL).

The round leather game has been hit by crisis after crisis in recent times with the trend becoming worse in the last two years.

If it’s not members
of the football federation slugging it out with one another over travel
allowances or positions within in-house committees, it will be the NFF
engaging in a war of words with other members of the football
community. The second half of 2010 was particularly plagued by crises,
which made nonsense of any efforts to administer the game.

Some of the
conflicts have spilled into this New Year, with combatants heading to
the courts — most notably Harrison Jalla and his National Association
of Nigerian Footballers (NANF), dragging the NFF to court over the
legitimacy of its current board led by Aminu Maigari.

There is also the
case over who should be the Premier League’s title sponsor. Globacom
had filed a suit at a Federal High Court in Lagos after the NPL awarded
the sponsorship right to rivals telecommunication company MTN. Globacom
is claiming amongst other things that, MTN did not participate in the
bid process and therefore, cannot be named league sponsor.

NFF versus Owumi

By far the biggest rift presently engulfing Nigerian football is undoubtedly the face-off between the NFF and Davidson Owumi.

Owumi, a former
Nigeria international whose entire club career were with club sides
based in Nigeria, was last year elected chairman of the NPL. But the
NFF, at the end of its last General Assembly in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom
State capital on December 29, 2010, announced that he was no longer the
head of the league body as he was not qualified, in the first instance,
to contest in the election that had ushered him into office.

In reaching this
verdict, the NFF based its decision on the ruling of an Arbitration
Panel headed by Akin Ibidapo-Obe, an associate professor of law from
the University of Lagos and set up by the immediate past board headed
by Sani Lulu.

The NFF board under
Lulu had set up the panel as a means of resolving the imbroglio that
ensued following Owumi’s emergence as the chairman of the NPL at the
end of the league body’s May 8, 2010 election.

Victor Baribote,
who had vied for the post of NPL chairman at the May 8 polls, albeit
unsuccessfully, along with current Kaduna State Commissioner of Sports,
Mohammed Abdul-Azeez, had appealed against Owumi’s election saying he
was not qualified to vie for a position within the NPL. Abdul-Azeez was
the General Manager of the Kaduna State government-owned Ranch Bees at
the time of the election.

They based their argument on the grounds that Owumi was not the head of any of the country’s Premier League sides.

Owumi had
previously been the CEO of Enugu Rangers, a club he had played for, and
it was from that position that he to become the chairman of the Club
Owners Association, a body consisting of over 50 professional club
sides.

However, he was no
longer the Rangers boss in the months leading up to the NPL election
but after signifying his intention to run for a position within the
board of the NPL, his nomination forms were endorsed by his successor,
Paul Chibuzor thus confirming Owumi, even if not explicitly, as a
member of the Rangers board.

Owumi’s endorsement
was however denounced by Sam Onyishi, who was the chairman of the
Rangers Management Board, the club’s holding company. Onyishi, later
did a U-turn on his earlier decision and eventually sent a letter
endorsing Owumi’s nomination after the expiration of the deadline.

Some, however,
argued that the NPL recognised the initial endorsement letter from
Chibuzor as the league body only does business directly with the club
and not with the holding company.

But even if that
was the case and Owumi was a member of the Rangers board at the time of
the election, Baribote’s argument is that even though he was still the
chairman of the Club Owners Association and later the Chairman of
Chairmen, Owumi was no longer the CEO of Rangers, and as such, was not
in a position to vie for the post of NPL chairman.

But did the NPL election guidelines state that only club bosses should vie for the post of NPL chairman?

“There is nowhere
in the election guidelines where it was stated that only chairmen of
Premier League clubs can become chairman of the NPL,” said Emeka Nwani,
the media officer of the league body. “Anybody, so long as he has been
endorsed by a club was free to contest.” Nwani’s view is similar to
that of Paul Bassey, a sports journalist and member of the media
committees of FIFA and CAF.

Reneging on an agreement?

Writing in his
weekly column in a Nigerian newspaper, Bassey, who was initially the
secretary of the Electoral Committee set up to oversee the May 8 NPL
election before being removed following petitions from those who said
he was a close friend of Oyuki Obaseki, a former chairman of the NPL,
noted that Baribote and Abdul-Azeez “were at the NPL Congress which
took place on January 20, 2010 at the La Monde Hotel in Abuja where
decisions were made to streamline election guidelines.”

One of the
decisions taken at the meeting which had in attendance representatives
of all the 20 Premier League clubs, according to Bassey, was that owing
to the disparity in the composition of the management committees of the
various clubs, with some of them having chairmen while others had sole
administrators or general managers, “the NPL Congress decided that any
member of management or executive committee of any club was free to
contest election as chairman of chairmen.”

And it was through
that platform, as the chairman of chairmen, that Owumi rose to become
the NPL’s boss before the subsequent appeals filed by Baribote and
Abdul-Azeez.

However, in line
with the Standard Electoral Code (SEC) of FIFA, the NPL set up an
Appeal Committee which, after going through the matter, confirmed Owumi
as the chairman of the NPL which, according to Article 12 (4)
explicitly states that “the decisions of the election appeal committee
are final and may not be monitored by any government body.”

A similar view is
also to be found in the NPL’s 2010 Election Guidelines under Article G
(iii) which states that: “Decisions of the Electoral Appeals Committee
shall be final.”

It was however at
this point, especially with Baribote threatening to go to court over
the decision, that the Lulu-led NFF board opted to set up the
Ibidapo-Obe led Arbitration Panel.

There are however those who feel the decision of the panel does not supersede those of the NPL’s Appeal Committee.

“The electoral
guidelines used in conducting the election was accepted (by the NFF)
and it is clearly stipulated in the guidelines that any dispute should
be referred to the Appeal Committee which sat on the case and upheld
the outcome,” said Ahmed Gara-Gombe, a former boss of the Gombe State
FA.

“But they (the NFF)
set up a panel which in reality was just a consultative body, and this
panel said that the election should be annulled. This cannot be because
the NPL Congress accepted the outcome of the election only for someone
else to annul it,” added Gara-Gombe who traced the origin of the
annulment to Owumi’s rift with the Lulu-led NFF.

Origins of the rift

In September 2007,
the NFF suspended some NPL officials including Obaseki, his deputy,
Shehu Gusau and the secretary Salisu Abubakar after both bodies failed
to agree on who had the right to appoint referees for league matches
ahead of the commencement of the 2007/2008 Premier League season. The
suspensions ranged from two to three years.

Owumi was also
slammed with a three-year suspension after he spoke out against the
NFF’s decision. The suspension was later reduced to six months with
effect from October 2, 2007, and it ended in April 2008. But since that
incident, the relationship between Owumi and Lulu deteriorated.

“That is the reason
for setting up the panel because with his emergence as the chairman of
the NPL Owumi automatically became the second vice-chairman of the NFA
(or vice-president of the NFF),” continued Gara-Gombe.

“Don’t forget that
Lulu was back then still keen on getting re-elected and it wouldn’t
have augured well for him to now have someone who would stand in his
way as his deputy. But I’m not surprised that the people now in the NFA
decided to now uphold the illegal decision of the panel because they
are all birds of a feather.” Going by FIFA’s electoral code and the
articles in the guidelines of both the NFF and NPL, the NFF’s
Arbitration Panel may after all have been illegal.

This is partly
because the NFF had sent observers to monitor the NPL election and no
anomaly was reported. Also, two current serving board members of the
NFF — Enyimba’s chairman Felix Anyansi-Agwu and Referees’ Committee
chairman Suleiman Muazu — were members of the NPL’s Electoral Committee
that ushered in Owumi.

“I am baffled by it
all,” was Owumi’s reaction when NEXT got across to him via telephone,
“But I have said all I wanted to say on the matter. There is nothing
else to say that I had not already said through the statement I made
available to the press,” added Owumi before politely asking to be
excused as he was in a meeting.

The statement Owumi
was referring to was the one he released on December 30 in which he
said, amongst other things, that he remains the NPL boss adding that
the Congress of the NPL had earlier met and confirmed his position on
the Premier League board.

He also stated that he objected to the Arbitration Panel especially as the NPL had “already taken a decision on the matter.”

Regardless of who
is right or wrong, the only logical route to take is for all parties
involved to reach an amicable settlement as the victims at the end of
the day could be the players and the coaches of Premier League sides; a
league that appears to be gradually picking momentum thanks to certain
innovations recently instituted by the new leadership of the NPL.

Whether the league will continue to blossom without the NPL’s head
remains to be seen but according to Obaseki, “It is a step in the wrong
direction and it will do no one any good… I just pray that this
brewing crisis doesn’t spill over because if it spills over, then we
are in for another round of crisis.”