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It
has been a shaky 12 months for tennis in Nigeria. While they was still a
dearth of tournaments to help players improve, the few tournaments that
were hosted turned into bright spots for foreigners as witnessed in the
two legs of the Governors Cup in Lagos. Nigeria hosted the African
junior championship in March on brand new courts in Abuja but the
performances of the players were not encouraging – it was all average.

The 33rd edition of
the Africa Junior Tennis Championships was hosted at the National
Stadium Abuja, between March 28 and April 12, and the Secretary General
of the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF), Ikana Mbora, said: “From just
six courts, we now have 20 standard courts. The ITF officials were very
surprised and wanted us to host the event in 2011 but we had to decline
because it clashes with the dates for the general elections.”

The championship
served off on March 29, and the Nigerian team was made up of 12 male and
seven female players. Three players came in from abroad to join the
team: Umoru Balami from South Africa, Onyeka Mbonu from Holland, and a
fresh face from London, 15-year-old Lolade Ogunbisan.

By hosting the
tournament, the Nigerian team was given a better chances to qualify for
the World Championship with the 13 wild card slots that were granted the
country but it did not pan out as planned. Mohammed Ubale, who worked
with the junior team in the preparation and the tournament itself, said
it was a good beginning and the sign of better things to come. The
coach’s thoughts were also confirmed by Mbora.

The good

The positive things
that tennis took out of the year, according to both men, include the
discovery of good junior players that are almost ready to replace the
older ones.

Another plus was the development of facilities in Ado-Ekiti and the Federal Capital, Abuja.

The choice of
Ado-Ekiti as the camp of the junior team came as a surprise to many but
Ubale said: “We went to Ado because of the facilities that were
available. They have four newly constructed courts and the State
Government gave the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF) N2 million to
prepare for the championship. I think that was enough incentive to go
there.”

Ubale is confident
about the future with the provision of the facilities, “In a time when
there is a tremendous decline in grassroots development, these
developments are good for the game as the provision of the
infrastructure is the first step to development.”

Ubale added that
players like Samuel Omoile, Umoru Balami and Nonso Maduekwe are ready to
step up to the senior level in the men category while 13-year old Sarah
Adegoke has just won a one month trial at the ITF academy in South
Africa.

“We also did well in
Abuja as Omoile got to the quarter final, which was the best
performance by a Nigerian player since 2003 when Candy Idoko got to the
finals,” Ubale said.

“We now have the
launch pad for another exciting set of tennis stars and in the next five
years, things will definitely get better in the senior level.”

The bad

America-based Sadiq
Abdullahi, who has spoken extensively on what tennis administrators need
to do to bring the game back to life, is still sad about the attitude
of administrators to developing the game in the country.

“My brother, my
recent thoughts as chronicled in the Nigerian press have been a critical
analysis of the past Nigerian tennis administrators, and many of them
are not happy with my pronouncements. I have been critical of the past
presidents (I mentioned names) because there is an urgent need to change
how we approach tennis development in Nigeria in today’s standards.”

Abdullahi has been
criticised in some quarters for maligning people in authority but the
tennis teacher is hopeful that the game can be revived.

“My tennis
colleagues in America and my new friends on facebook and elsewhere have
indicated to me their willingness and readiness to support a movement to
promote a long time program for tennis development in Nigeria.

“At first I
sincerely believed that the Nigerian Tennis Federation was on my side
and open-minded, accepting, and genuinely ready to participate in
growing the game at the grass-root level. I was totally wrong.

“The painful truth
is that a lot of us do not need the tennis federation for our survival,
but the tennis federation is a key actor and an important partnership in
the implementation and monitoring of a full-blown grass-root tennis
development plan in Nigeria.

“We will provide the
technical assistance. We will stay away from politics. We will mobilise
everyone including the “sports spiritual revival or reawakening” people
in the Lagos state area. Finally, I guess the tennis development at the
grass-root level will now be carried out without the endorsement and
the blessings of the Nigerian Tennis Federation. These are my thoughts.”

The excellent

Nadal slam Rafael
Nadal became the youngest man to win the career slam in 2010. Nadal
regained the French Open crown with an emotional win over Robin
Soderling at Roland Garros. Nadal then marched off to England to win a
second Wimbledon title and then won the U.S. Open for the first time,
beating Novak Djokovic in the final and in the process became the
youngest man to win a career slam.

Former world number
one, Serena Williams won the 2010 Australian Open and then claimed a
13th grand slam title at Wimbledon before treading on broken glass in a
Munich restaurant in July. In her absence, Denmark’s 20-year-old
Caroline Wozniacki ended the year as world number one even though she
failed to win any of the slam tournaments.

Belgian Kim Clijsters retained the U.S. Open title she won the
previous year months after returning to the Tour as a mother. Veteran
Italian player, Francesca Schiavone beat Samantha Stosur in the final to
become, at nearly 30, the first Italian woman to win a grand slam
singles title. Schiavone then completed a memorable year by helping
Italy to a third Fed Cup title in five years.

When
it comes to the Nigerian Cricket scene, the year 2010 will go down as a
positive year. In the course of the year, the game took giant strides
towards becoming more professionally run. The national U-19 team was
victorious in the ACA-North West Africa championship before coming sixth
at the African championship. In 2010 the cricket teams also shed the
white uniform for coloured jerseys. In addition, the federation gave
scholarships to deserving players, to help them develop and further of
their education.

Apart from the
above, the Board of Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF) appointed George
Wiltshire as the General Manager and Chief Operating Officer of the
Federation.

Wiltshire, a
seasoned administrator and ex-International Cricketer, with over 20
years of cognate administrative experience, will now be in charge of the
day-to-day running of the secretariat and also all national leagues and
the national teams. The appointment of Wiltshire was in compliance with
the International Cricket Council criteria for its associate members,
of which Nigeria is one.

That activity added a
novel idea to the sports scene as the concession of cricket gave a good
example to other sports on what can be done to raise the level of the
game in Nigeria.

Wiltshire said that
he was easily assimilated into the role because of the over 35 years
experience he has in the game, both as a player and as an administrator.

“You have to recall
that I have been the secretary of the Lagos Cricket Association for the
past nine years and over these years I have always been working on one
sub-committee or another, so I have never been away from the game and I
am happy now to be able to run the secretariat and add my inputs to the
growth of the game,” he said.

Getting funds to revive the game

Wiltshire explained
that cricket and all other sports, except football, are suffering from
lack of sponsorship – both from private coffers and from government.

“We all know that
football alone takes more than 70% of what government releases for
sports in the country and the other sports – 29 other sports have to
manage the change of 30%, which I really think is not fair on these
other sports.

“Cricket has been
able to make a head way because of the support we are getting from the
International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Africa Cricket Association
(ACA), who generally fund developmental programmes in countries that are
not part of the test countries (10 in number). This has been helping us
organise tournaments, both under age and for the senior national team.

“We also get help in
using the training facilities at Benoni in South Africa. This was where
the U-19 prepared for tournaments in Swaziland and in Namibia and we
will be doing the same for all teams that have international assignments
in 2011. This takes a lot of weight off the federation,” Wiltshire
said.

“The monies that are
realised by the ICC from organising the test matches are allowed to
filter down to us. The ICC also has a global budget from Pepsi, running
into millions of dollars that are sent to us to organise and develop the
game.”

Nigeria is able to
enjoy this largesse because of its associate status and the country is
now rated at 39 in the world. According to Wiltshire, “With all these
and the little that we get from the federal government, we have been
able to turn around the fortunes of the game in the country.”

Emergence of new talent

Cricket was the
first sport to be organised in the grass roots between secondary schools
in the 50s and 60s in Nigeria but it has now been trumped by football.
However, 2010 witnessed a resurgence of sorts in the secondary schools
and the results, which are the unearthing of young talents, are
beginning to show again. Endurance Ofem, national team player and
instructor is happy that new talents are emerging through the ranks.

“There has been
tremendous improvement for junior players. This year, a player like
Vahun Behrani has grown in leaps and bounds. Next year, he will
definitely be knocking on the doors of national team selectors.

There are others like James Chukwu and Niyi Adegbola (who took nine
wickets in the last league match of the year). These players will go a
long way to help our cricket in the future. But they have to be kept
competitive, which is the only way in which they will continue to
improve.”

The
year 2010 was a phenomenal one for football in the world. Easily, the
most outstanding spectacle was the World Cup, which held in South Africa
between June and July.

As far as
competitions go, it was a resounding success both in terms of
organisation, quality of football played and returns on investment.

I was particularly
excited by the job done by Danny Jordaan and his team at the organising
committee. Their painstaking attention to detail eventuated in the
organisation of one of the best tournaments ever shutting up for good,
the army of critics in Europe who not pleased with FIFA’s decision to
hand hosting rights to South Africa, had embarked on a campaign of
denigration of the ability of the country to secure lives of visitors
given what they claimed was the high rate of crime.

All that is history now as the sweet after taste of that memorable tournament will linger for some time to come.

Sadly for us here in
Nigeria our football landscape in 2010 was pockmarked by crises. For me
and a lot of Nigerians, this year was one in which football
administrators finally revealed themselves to be utterly selfish,
egotistic and incapable of serving this country in a professional
manner.

While their
counterparts elsewhere were busy fine-tuning strategies to develop the
game in their countries, our administrators spent the better part of
2010 squabbling over trifles. It was a huge shame seeing football
grounded while men and women entrusted with the responsibility of
administering the game demeaning themselves in a way that degraded not
the game but the country as a whole.

Personal ambition
proved for them to be more important than the tasking of seeing that
Nigeria’s image be burnish international through qualitative performance
of its national teams in international football competitions. The
biggest culprit in this regard is undoubtedly Sani Lulu, deposed
President of the Nigeria Football Federation.

The former football
federation boss consumed by his ambition to get re-elected as head of
Nigeria’s football governing body abandoned completely his job of
administering the game and instead wasted precious time doctoring
statutes of the NFF and pruning the number of delegates eligible to vote
in federation’s elections in order to facilitate his unholy agenda.

His nefarious scheme
collapsed like a pack of cards after the Super Eagles, which he had
neglected to prepare adequately for the World Cup performed well below
expectation of Nigerians thus paving way for his impeachment by his
comrades in-arms.

It was a shame
really when Nigerians became privy to the notice of impeachment served
on Lulu and they discovered how cronyism and nepotism had stifled due
process at the federation with the depose football boss alleged to have
freely spent public funds on friends and family members.

More than scandals

Aside Lulu’s
misadventure, Nigerians were also witness to the shameless manner those
who succeeded him flouted the laws of the land preferring instead to
listen to FIFA when commonsense clearly dictated otherwise. They proved
to be no better than the man they had conspired to remove from office in
the way they disregarded due process.

It also emerged in
2010 that in terms of integrity our football administrators are
painfully inadequate. This clearly reflected in the treatment of Lulu.
Though the former NFA boss clearly deserved what he got, the action of
men who until the last minute had partaken off the spoils in singling
him and two others for condemnation, showed just how irresponsible and
unreliable they are. Whether Nigerian football will be safe in the hands
of these men is a matter for serious debate.

In 2010 we were also
made to suffer the indignity of having our country’s name mentioned in
an international football scandal where one of our football
administrators was said to have asked for bribe to vote for the United
States of America ahead of the announcement of the bid, which was
eventually won by Russia.

Thankfully, for us
the year was not just about these selfish men. It was also a year our
women tried to salvage something of our battered football pride. It was
the year of the Falconets who against the odds, went all the way to the
final of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World cup where they lost to a better
prepared German team.

2010 was also the
year of the Flamingoes. Our U-17 women’s team, playing a delectable
brand of football, fought their way to the quarter-final where they lost
not to a better Korean team but to inexperience having not been
properly exposed to quality international friendly matches going into
the tournament.

Finally, 2010 was also the year, the Super Falcons, long neglected
and much mistreated by our football authorities gave Nigerian its only
international football triumph.

This
year has witnessed a lot of memorable events, some noble, some not so
noble. It has been a year of breathtaking accomplishments and heart
rending defeats. In the midst of it, a few individuals and events stand
out. We bring you a few of them.

Paul the Octopus

Born in 2008 in
Weymouth, England, he was to become a star in just two years. In the
second half of 2010 he hit celebrity status.

Paul, an Octopus,
which lived in a tank at the Sea Life Centre in Oberhausen, Germany,
became a cult hero when it became known that he could correctly predict
the outcome of football matches involving Germany.

At the 2008 European
Championships, he had correctly given the scores of four out of the six
matches Germany played. However, it was at the 2010 World Cup in South
Africa that his star shone. There all his predictions, done by choosing
between two boxes containing food with the flags of two countries marked
on top, proved uncannily accurate.

Two of his famous
predictions were Germany’s loss to Spain in the semi-finals and Spain’s
victory over the Netherlands in the final of the World Cup. The
prediction against Germany attracted some measure of hatred among
Germans with some of them calling for him to be grilled. In reaction to
the calls, Spain’s Prime Minister, Jose Louis Zapatero joked that he
would send bodyguards to protect him.

Paul the Octopus died a few months after the World Cup, on October 26.

The Vuvuzela

One of the symbols
of 2010 was undoubtedly the Vuvuzela. At the World Cup, held in South
Africa between June and July, its unique billowing sound dominated
stadiums during matches. The musical instrument, which measures about
two feet in length, first caught global attention in 2009 when South
Africa hosted the FIFA Confederation Cup.

Originally, the
Vuvuzela was made from the horn of a Kudu and was used to summon
villagers in distant communities to a meeting. In 2009, this little
known instrument became a major attraction at football venues in South
Africa showing up globally at the Confederation Cup.

At the 2010 World
Cup, its appeal extended to the rest of Africa and other parts of the
world, particularly Asia and South America with their nationals that
attended the World Cup in South Africa, buying many as gifts for family
and friends.

In Europe however,
the Vuvuzela enjoys no cult status. In fact, it has a lot of enemies
with teams from Europe complaining during the World Cup that its noise
made it difficult for players on the field to communicate with
themselves and their manager on the bench. After World Cup, the Vuvuzela
was officially banned by UEFA, Europe’s football governing body, from
being used in matches organised or sanctioned by the body.

South Africa

The 2010 World Cup
in South Africa was a remarkable event. For the one month that it
lasted, the entire country was one huge carnival with players drawn from
32 countries around the world treating spectators to sublime football.

With twelve
breathtaking stadiums, which had wonderful atmospherics underlined by
the unique but ‘maddening’ sound of the Vuvuzela, the tournament turned
out to be one of the best organised in recent times.

The exit of hosts,
South Africa in the first round of the tournament did not do much to
dampen the enthusiasm of local spectators as they still trooped to the
stadiums to cheer other nations to victory.

For Danny Jordaan,
Chief Executive Officer of the World Cup organising committee and his
team, it was a vindication of sorts following doubts about the ability
of South Africa to host the tournament by a section of the European
media. The media argued that the crime levels in the country would put
the lives of visitory and players in jeopardy.

The tournament
proved also to be of economic benefit to the nation. In July Pravin
Gordan, South Africa’s Finance Minister, said the World Cup will add
about 38 billion rand to his country’s coffers representing about 0.4
percent of its real Gross Domestic Product.

Amos Adamu

In 2010 things
unravelled for Amos Adamu, former Director General of the National
Sports Commission and member of FIFA’s executive committee. Adamu, known
in Nigerian sports circles as Mr Fix It, got into trouble in late
October after it was revealed by English Newspaper, Sunday Times of
London that he and Reynard Tenarii, another member of FIFA’s executive
committee, had asked for money to vote for America in their bid to host
the 2018 World, which was eventually given to Russian on December 2.

Adamu insisted he
did no wrong but was eventually handed a three-year suspension from all
football activities by FIFA after the organisation’s ethics committee
concluded investigation into the matter. Adamu, who has said he will
appeal FIFA’s decision, stayed away from Nigeria since the incident and
only returned to Nigeria on December 17.

Harrison Jalla

Until the second
half of this year, the name Harrison Jalla was known only to a number of
football faithful including sports reporters. All that changed in July
when the former Flash Flamingoes Football Club of Benin player, who is
currently president of the National Association of Nigerian Footballers
(NANF) took the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to court over the
decision to hold elections into its executive committee without first
having elections into the state football associations, where the mandate
of chairmen had expired.

The court granted
his prayer but the NFF went ahead to hold the elections prompting
Justice Okon Abang of the Lagos High Court to declared it null and void.
Jalla’s persistence with the case drew the ire of world football
governing body, FIFA, which cited Jalla’s case as one of the reasons it
suspended Nigeria in October.

Jalla eventually withdrew the case in October following intense
pressure from football authorities and football fans. Consequently,
FIFA lifted the ban.

Women
football was introduced in Nigeria in the late 70’s, but it did not
become popular until 1991 when Nigerians began to show interest. The
reason for the change in attitude was the quality of football played by
the Super Falcons, then led by Coach Paul Hamilton, en route the first
edition of the Women’s World Cup in China that year.

The Falcons went on
to feature in all the edition of the World Cup since getting to the
quarter-finals at the 1999 edition in the United States of America. This
is in addition to dominating the women’s game in Africa, winning all
but one edition of the African Women’s Championship held since 1998.

While the Super
Falcons made women football popular in the country, the junior national
teams have helped to keep it popular. Both the Falconets (U-20 team) and
the Flamingoes (U-17 team) have fared well in their latest outings;
reaching the final and the quarter finals in the U-20 and U-17 World
cups respectively.

Great teams

After finishing
second in their group at the 2010 FIFA U-20 World Cup, the Falconets
went on to oust USA in the quarter-final and Korea Republic in the
semi-final, before falling to Germany in the final.

At the U-17 World
Cup, in Trinidad and Tobago, the Flamingoes topped their group, but they
were knocked out of the tournament in the quarter final by Korea
Republic, who recorded a 6-5 victory.

Theses achievements,
coming shortly after the disappointment of the Super Eagles was a
breath of fresh air for Nigerians; with many wondering why the Nigerian
Football Federation (NFF) cannot direct half of what they spend on the
Super Eagles to cater for the ladies.

The Super Falcons
this year were able to reclaim the African title, which they lost to
Equatorial Guinea two years ago. Despite their dominance on the
continent, the Six-time African Champions have failed to go beyond the
quarter-final of the World Cup.

No development

Current coach,
Eucharia Uche, has expressed confidence that 2011 Women World Cup would
be better. Unfortunately, the achievements of the teams have not led to
better care for the women league in the country.

Consequently, women football in Nigeria has continued to thrive only at the national level.

With no sponsors for
a local women league, many argue that regardless of the beautiful
campaign by the national teams in recent times, the game is in dire
straits. This they said is because a women league to provide the
foundation for the national teams is almost nonexistent.

Sera Iloduba, a
player who used to star for Bayelsa Queens, has expressed disappointment
at the way things turned out with the league. She is happy for the
opportunity to play but she is getting discouraged.

“I have been playing
for five years and the only thing that has kept me going is passion I
have for the game,” she said. “My parents are now telling me to quit,
saying with all the hard work what do I get for my effort. Looking at it
from their perspective, it is true especially when I still have to ask
them for money to do things”.

Another player, Ogochukwu Atube, said the neglect by the NFF makes them feel like orphans.

“For the past six
years, we have not had any form of sponsorship and they expect us to
feel like we are part of the federation… If they can look for
sponsorship for the guys, I see no reason why they cannot do the same
for us”.

Though she plays in the league, Atube was not sure when the new season would begin.

“You see? That is
one of the things I am telling you. There is so much uncertainty that
you would get discouraged. I would not blame the club owners if they say
they want to pull out of the NFF”.

Giving women their due

About two weeks ago,
the Nigeria Women Football Clubs Owners Chairmen and Team Managers
accused the Nigerian Football Federation of neglecting the women league.

Joy Etim, Former
Falcons assistant Coach and manager of Puma FC, has warned that for the
gains achieved in women football to be sustained and improved, there is
the need to infuse funds into the grassroots. “Grassroots development is
the bedrock of any sports. If we do not encourage the upcoming
generation, how do we replace the older ones. Most of these girls are
financially constrained. Is it a girl that does not have transport fare
to come to camp, and has to trek that would be able to put up her best?”

For better results
in 2011 and for a sustained development in football, players and coaches
agree that there is the need to infuse much needed funds into the
league.

Atube said: “Maybe
part of the sponsorship fund should be earmarked to develop women
because with the way things are going, the women may never get the
attention they need if the hands of the sponsors are not forced. Absence
of funding is making the league very boring”.

Etim on her part believes that a separate body for the women will benefit the players.

“When there is
unequal representation in the NFF, do you think the women will be able
to have their say? So, I will suggest that women should also have their
own executives.”

Uche on her part reminded the NFF that many of the players who are now in the national teams started out from the local league:

“(The) female football league has not disappointed Nigerians.
Unfortunately, we have not been given our dues by the football
authorities. I am calling on the NFF to ensure that the league has a
viable department in the secretariat. In addition, corporate sponsors
must be wooed by them. Without sponsors, female football will not be
sustained”.

Though
many still believe the country is capable of better performances than
it actually did in 2010, the exploits of female athletes in the country
accounts for most successes recorded in Track and Field within the year.

From the African
Championships held in Nairobi Kenya, to the inaugural Youth Olympics in
Singapore, it was mostly the female athletes who made the headlines. The
men were left to play catch-up, save for a few, who distinguished
themselves.

Just like the preceding year, Nigeria was enmeshed in drug scandals in 2010 with three athletes —

Damola Osayomi,
Samuel Okon and Folashade Abugan — found guilty of doping offences at
the Commonwealth Games. All three are to serve bans for their acts.

Despite the
successes recorded, many argue that the Athletics Federation has not
fared any better as complaints about neglect, unpaid allowances,
inadequate preparations and unprofessionalism still persist.

Queen of the tracks

Against the odds, Blessing Okagbare emerged as arguably the country’s top performer of the year.

Though she missed
the Commonwealth Games in India and the World Championships in Doha —
two places many had expected her to test her true might, the University
of Texas, El Paso student stands tall amongst her peers.

Okagbare won the US
national Indoor titles in the 60 metres, grabbed top honours in the long
jump and broke the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA)
Championships meet record twice this year.

Three months later,
Okagbare, added NCAA crowns during the outdoor season in the 100 metres
and long jump, becoming the first in collegiate history to pull off such
a feat.

She was undefeated
in all sprint and jump finals during the season and drew the curtain on
her collegiate career with four national titles, 11 All-America honours
and 15 Conference USA championships in 2010.

Those remarkable
feats earned Okagbare the 2010 Conference USA Female Athlete of the
Year, while she was also awarded both the USTFCCCA Mountain Region Track
Athlete and Mountain Region Field Athlete of the Year during the indoor
season and the Mountain Region Track Athlete of the Year for the
outdoor season.

“It really means a
lot to me simply for the fact that I am not an American and for them to
award that to me means so much to me,” Okagbare said.

League debut

In July 2010,
Okagbare made her Diamond League debut in Eugene, setting a PB over 100m
(11.03) before heading to Europe where she first improved her 200m PB
to 22.71 seconds in Lignano and then clocked 11.10 seconds in Monaco
four days later), confirming her good shape before heading to Nairobi
for the 17th African Athletics Championships.

After arriving in
Nairobi as the new face of African sprinting, Okagbare did not
disappoint, carting away three gold medals in the 100m, Long Jump and
the 4x100m relay whilst erasing the previous Africa 100m Championship
record of 11.05 seconds in the process. Her 11.03 seconds clocking also
equalled her personal best set earlier in July.

In all, Okagbare and
the other female athletes won seven of the eight gold, three of the
five silver, and three of the five bronze medals Nigeria won at that
championships.

After the African
Championships in Nairobi, Okagbare improved her 100m PB to 11.00
seconds, beating American 2009 World Championships bronze medallist
Carmelita Jeter in the heats. She eventually finished third in the final
in 11.10 seconds, at the Aviva London Grand Prix in Crystal Palace on
August 14th.

So much more

The year definitely
was not all about Okagbare as other athletes like Ajoke Odumosu, gold
medallist in the 400m hurdles event at the Commonwealth Games also gave
the country something to cheer about.

At the inaugural
Youth Olympics in Singapore, it was the duo of Josephine Omaka and
Florence Nwakwe who wrote the country’s name in gold winning the 100m
and 200m events respectively.

Seun Adigun,
Margaret Etim, Bukola Agbokunloko, Damola Osayomi amongst others also
gave the country something to cheer at different times.

While acknowledging
the exploits of the women, Ogho-Oghene Egwero, one of the country’s top
athletes said the male athletes also gave their best but just did not
get it right like the ladies.

“We all tired our
best each time we represent the country but you can only give what you
have. I hope we do much better next year. For me, I have set some
targets for myself which I have already started working on. With the
support of everybody, 2011 will be much better” Egwero said.

For 400m runner, Biola Onakoya who was plagued by injury and neglected by the federation, the coming year will also be good one.

“The season was not
too bad after having an ankle injury and being neglected by everyone
including the federation, thank God for Nigeria Security & Civil
Defence Corps that came to my aid if not I could have left athletics. I
have started training in preparation for the upcoming season and I
believe God will lead me to the promise land. May God help Nigeria
Athletics,” Onakoya said.

Last man standing

It wasn’t all gloom
for the men. London -based jumper, Tosin Oke could best be described as
the revelation of the year after coming from obscurity to win both the
African title and the Commonwealth Games gold in the triple Jump event
where many least expected any medal.

His feat in India
ended a 44-year gold drought at the Commonwealth Games. The 30-year-old
is the first Nigeria’s gold medallist in the event since Samuel Igun won
in 1966.

Looking ahead

In his own
assessment, Obinna Ogba, President of the Athletics Federation of
Nigeria (AFN) rated athletics in 2010 high compared to what obtained in
the last three years.

For the New Year 2011, he stated that the Federation will begin the season with a Junior Programme.

“Next year we are starting the junior programme in February and it is
named after Dr. D.K Olukoya, he is going to be taking over the
sponsorship of the junior programme,” he said. He added that the
federation will also put the necessary machinery in place to prepare
well for both the All African Games and World Championships.

The
Year 2010 was a year of intense activity for Nigerian football. Compared
to the years preceding it, 2010 proved to be the most dramatic and
conflict ridden.

The seeds of
conflicts were sown early. In January at the Africa Cup of Nations in
Angola, the Super Eagles, which in 2009 had kept Nigerians on
tenterhooks during the qualifiers for this year’s World Cup, were
expected to redeem themselves.

The team, which had
in the last three editions before 2008 finished in third place before
its quarter final ouster at the Ghana edition, was expected to win the
tournament a third time in Angola.

That expectation
proved too great as the Eagles exited the tournament in the semi-final
losing to a young Ghanaian side comprising players drawn largely from
its U-20 team, which won the FIFA World Youth Championship in Egypt in
September 2009.

Chain reaction

The Eagles’ failure
to win the Nations Cup set in motion a series of events which were to
reverberate throughout the year. The immediate outcome was the firing of
head coach, Shuaibu Amodu on February 5.

Amodu’s sack did not
come as surprise to many. Even though he had led the Eagles to qualify
for the World Cup and had met the Nations Cup semi-final target set for
him by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), a lot of Nigerians were
not altogether satisfied with the way the Eagles played under him. For
most of them, the players appeared carefree and listless with the
traditional spark and verve associated with the squad gone.

With Amodu out of
the way, it was expected that the football federation would move swiftly
to get a replacement but it frittered away valuable time only
appointing former Sweden national team manager, Lars Lagerback at the
end of that month. The Swede however did not get to try out his players
until May 25 about three weeks to the World Cup when the Eagles faced
Saudi Arabia in an international friendly match.

Lagerback’s late
meeting with his players was to have dire consequences for the squad as
it failed to make it beyond the first round of the World Cup despite
being presented with a last opportunity to do so.

Lulu axed

Nigeria’s poor
showing at the World Cup had consequences. President Goodluck Jonathan
taking cue from angry and disappointed Nigerians order a two-year ban on
Nigeria’s participation in international football competitions. He was
to rescind his decision a few days later after warnings from FIFA and
pressure from Nigerians who felt that the careers of players of other
national football teams affected by the ban would be truncated.

Beleaguered
officials of the NFF eager to stave off further verbal attacks from
Nigerians moved to appease then by impeaching Sani Lulu, President of
the federation and two other officials – Amanze Uchegbulam, 1st Vice
President and Taiwo Ogunjobi, head of technical committee. The officials
were among other things accused of running the federation without
reference to other members of the board. In place of Lulu, Aminu Maigari
mounted the saddle.

Election debacle

Before Lulu fell
from power, he had carefully crafted his strategy to remain in office.
Indeed, it was said that it was his preoccupation with getting
re-elected president of the NFF that blinded him to the necessity of
arranging friendly matches on time for the Eagles to enable Lagerback
get a feel of his players well before the World Cup commenced.

As a way of
retaining power, Lulu had tinkered with the statutes of the federation,
pruning the number of delegates eligible to vote during national
elections from 101 to 44 with 37 of those members being chairmen of the
36 state football associations and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT),
Abuja. In addition to this, Lulu had in 2009 extended the tenure of the
state FA chairmen to November this year meaning that the individuals
whose tenure should have expire around the middle of 2010 would stay on
to vote in the national elections fixed for August this year without
first going to renew their own mandate.

This move was
opposed by those who felt Lulu had designed the process to facilitate
his return to power. His case was not helped by allegations that he
bribed each FA chairmen with N5million and sponsored them to the World
Cup in South Africa.

From Odegbami to Jalla

Segun Odegbami,
former captain of the Green Eagles (now Super Eagles) challenged Lulu,
sending two letters, the first in June and the second in July, to FIFA
describing Lulu’s tinkering with the statues as illegal. Beyond
acknowledgement of his first letter, FIFA practically ignored Odegbami.
But they could not ignore Harrison Jalla.

Jalla, a former
footballer who played for among other clubs, Flash Flamingoes of Benin
City in the 1980s, headed to court to compel the NFF to allow elections
hold first into the state FAs. The court, a high Court sitting in Lagos,
had ordered that the elections originally fixed for August 21, 2010 be
put on hold until issues pertaining to the Jalla suit had been
determined.

The NFF now headed
by Maigari, the Director of Finance during Lulu’s tenure, disobeyed the
order and held the elections on August 26 after Isa Bio, minister of
sports had asked them to give him a few days to brief President Jonathan
on the matter.

The disobedience of
the court order infuriated Justice Okon Abang of the Lagos High Court
who nullified the election stating that Maigari and 28 other individuals
including Musa Ahmadu, current acting secretary general of the NFF who
replaced Nolaji Ojo-Oba, the federation’s secretary general who were in
contempt for holding the elections. Maigari appealed the decision.

The case in court
created problems for Maigari preventing him from acting as NFF boss. It
also held up the commencement of the 2010/2011 season of the Nigeria
Premier League, which could not get under way without some committees in
the NFF being constituted.

Trouble in the NPL

There was also the
matter of leadership tussle within the board of the Nigeria Premier
League, which had not abated since former Enugu Rangers striker,
Davidson Owumi emerged chairman of the body this year.

With former Bayelsa
United chairman Victor Baribote insisting he was the right person to
head the NPL and claiming that the relegation of Bayelsa United, the
sports ministry waded in with Bio summoning premier league club owners
to find a way out. It was agreed at the meeting to overturn the
relegation of the Yenagoa-based club side alongside Wikki tourists,
Gateway FC and Ranchers Bees, which had been approved by the congress of
the NPL during the Super Four tournament in Ijebu-Ode in August.

This decision
coupled with the advice given to Ahmadu by the sports ministry to step
down as acting secretary following his being named as a contemnor by the
Lagos High Court, drew the ire of FIFA, which held that government was
interfering with the running of football in the country.

FIFA bans Nigeria

The world football
body on October 4 slammed a ban on Nigeria “until the court actions have
ceased and the duly elected NFF executive committee is able to work
without any interference.”

Moves were quickly
made to get the ban lifted with Amos Adamu, FIFA’s executive committee
member reaching agreement with Jalla who agreed to withdraw the case in
court in return for all the issues contained in the suit filed by the
association being resolved amicably between all the parties concerned
before the next hearing of the court.

This agreement
prompted FIFA to lift the ban on the understanding that final settlement
should be reached. The case was finally withdrawn on October 25 thus
paving way for Maigari to fully take charge at the NFF.

Cash-for-vote scandal

The lifting of the
ban had come as a relief for Adamu who had come under serious fire for
allegedly instigating FIFA to come down hard on Nigeria. His relief was
to be short-lived as trouble lurked around the corner.

On October 16 news
broke that the former Director General of the National Sports Commission
had been involved in cash for vote scandal.

English newspaper,
Sunday Times of London had broken the story of how Adamu and Reynard
Tenarii, another member of FIFA’s executive committee had asked for
money from their reporters carrying out a sting operation in which they
posed as lobbyists for the American bid to host the 2018 World Cup.
Adamu was alleged to has asked for £500,000 from the reporters to secure
his vote for the Americans who eventually pulled out of the bid. Video
footage was released showing Adamu in negotiation with the reporters.

Adamu said he was
innocent but was eventually suspend from all football activities for
three years by FIFA after the body’s ethics committee headed by Claudio
Sulser, a former Switzerland international concluded investigations into
the matter. He has repeatedly said he will appeal the decision.

The suspended FIFA
executive committee member returned to Nigeria on December 17 from
Europe where he had been holed up since the scandal broke. Last
Wednesday he was arrested by operatives of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC), which interrogated him for asking him among
other things, to explain how the N24 billion budgeted for the 2003 All
Africa Games was spent. He was released the same day but had his travel
passport seized.

Glo, NFF Sponsorship face-off

The crisis-ridden
football landscape also witnessed the face-off between NPL and former
league sponsors over the decision of the league organising body to award
sponsorship rights to rival telecommunications company, MTN.

After two days of
bidding, the NPL bid committee announced MTN represented at the exercise
by Total Promotions Limited as new sponsors of the league after it
presented a bid of N2.6 billion to sponsor the league for a four-year
period. Globacom had protested that decision claiming that it had put in
a superior bid of N3billion naira but on December 22, an adjudication
committee of lawyers set up by the NSC stated that the bid process was
transparent and that the NPL was right to have award the rights to MTN.

Women’s game offers hope

It was not all gloom
for Nigeria football as the women’s game proved to be an oasis in the
desert. As the men both in the administrative offices and the pitch
disappointed, the women chalked up laurels. At the U-20 Women’s World
cup, which took place in Germany between July and August, our Falconets
finished in second place behind hosts, Germany.

A month later in
Trinidad and Tobago Nigeria’s U-17, Nigeria’s U-17 women’s team, the
Flamingoes narrowly lost out in the quarter-final of the U-17 World Cup
to South Korea after leading on three occasions in the encounter.

Nigeria’s senior
women’s team, the Super Falcons were to capped a good outing by our
women by winning the African Women’s Championship, which held in South
Africa in November. It was their sixth title overall.

They were to shine again last week at the Glo Africa footballer of
the Year Awards in Cairo winning the Women’s Team of the Year with
striker Perpetua Nkwocha emerging best female footballer for the fourth
time.

Africa’s 400m record holder and Olympic medallist, Falialt
Ogunkoya, has described the resignation of Ibrahim Bio as Minister of Sports
and Chairman, National Sports Commission (NSC) as a sad development for sports
in the country.

Bio resigned last Wednesday to contest for the governor’s seat
in Kwara State. Ogunkoya then praised the people of Kwara State for being lucky
to have an astute administrator who has all it takes to consolidate on the
gains of the current governor of Kwara, Bukola Saraki.

Speaking on the development of the resignation, Ogunkoya, whose
49.10s returned at the Atlanta 1996 Olympics Games remains the African record
in women’s 400m said, “I don’t know why good people don’t last in sports. If
Bio had been Sports Minister for four years, our sports would have changed for
the better. It is very sad that he is leaving. But his eight months was
eventful. He was able to resolve all the problems he met on the ground. He had
the perfect relationship with the Director General, Patrick Ekeji, and at the
Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games, nobody gave Team Nigeria a chance, but he led
Nigeria to record one our best performances in the Games ever,” said Ogunkoya.

While the quarter-miler believes Bio’s resignation is bad for
sports in Nigeria. “The loss to sports is the gain of Kwara, the state will be
lucky to have Bio has governor. I have not been to the State since KWASPO ‘85
Sports Festival, but I heard the current governor is doing a good job; Bio has
all it takes to consolidate on the gains of Governor Saraki.

“The man is simple, humble, honest and transparent, he is also God fearing.
He is the first Sports Minister in recent times whose tenure was not
characterized by any scandal. I wished he had stayed longer in sports.”

Ukraine brothers
Vladimir and Vitali Klitschko, who hold four out of five world
heavyweight title crowns, promised on Saturday a much-anticipated fight
with WBA champion David Haye would take place next year.

“We promise that a
fight with David will take place in 2011, the brothers told German Bild
newspaper.” He can choose who of the two of us he will fight and will
lose his world title to,” they said.

Vladimir, who holds
the WBO, IBF and IBO belts, pulled out of his bout against Briton Dereck
Chisora on December 11 with a stomach muscle injury. Vitali retained
his WBC world heavyweight title by beating American Shannon Briggs on
points in October.

Haye easily defended his WBA title against fellow Briton Audley Harrison in Manchester, England, on November 13.

He had been due to fight Vladimir, the younger of the brothers, in June last year but withdrew citing an injury.

A Haye-Klitschko
fight will certainly generate major media attention, especially now that
many of the Klitschko world title defences get no or hardly any live
coverage in North America.

It is also the only fight that would give the Klitschkos the title of
undisputed heavyweight champions of the world, given they will not
fight each other.

The Miami Heat gave their fans some Christmas cheer with a dominating 96-80 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers Saturday.

LeBron James
collected 27 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, while Chris Bosh added
24 points and 13 rebounds to ensure it would not be a happy holiday for
the Lakers (21-9), who have now been blown out in two consecutive games.

The Lakers were hammered 98-79 by Milwaukee Tuesday.

“I don’t care if we
lose by 20 or by one — I just don’t like to lose,” Kobe Bryant told
reporters. “I’m just upset with how we’re playing. These games mean more
to our opponents than they do us and we need to correct that.”

Bryant struggled to break down a stifling Miami defense and finished with just 17 points on 6-of-16 shooting.

Miami (23-9) seized
the lead midway through the first quarter and never trailed after that,
holding Los Angeles to 40 percent shooting for the game.

The Christmas Day
meeting between the Lakers and Heat had been much anticipated since
James and Bosh signed with Miami to join fellow All Star Dwyane Wade.

Wade returned from a
sore knee that kept him out of the Heat’s previous game and had 18
points as Miami earned their 14th win in 15 games.

Against the reigning
two-times champions, the Heat raced out to a nine-point lead at
halftime and built a 21-point advantage in the fourth.

“We don’t pay much
attention to the score but we’re happy to win the game,” Bosh said. “We
made it tough on them. A (defensive game) is our type of game.”

Los Angeles slogged
through the opening quarter where they managed just 14 points, Bryant
and Spain’s Pau Gasol combined to shoot 0-for-11 from the field.

The Lakers left the court to a shower of jeers from the home fans. LA
were also beaten on Christmas Day last year by the Cleveland Cavaliers.