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Schalke
04 are in need of a minor miracle if they are to have any hope of
advancing past Manchester United to the Champions League final after
slumping to a 2-0 home defeat without as much as a fight.

It is not so much
Tuesday’s 2-0 first leg loss that leaves them facing a mountain to
climb in Manchester’s “theatre of dreams” but the lack of belief they
can turn the tie around against a team that could have easily won by
five goals.

The fact that
Schalke had not lost any of their last nine Champions League matches
before Tuesday and won all of their five previous home games in the
competition makes their work in Manchester even more difficult.

“Our starting
position now certainly points to Manchester having the advantage but in
football you never know,” Schalke coach Ralf Rangnick said.

The German coach,
who took over five weeks ago from Felix Magath, said this short time
had not been enough to bind his players into a unit capable of
seriously challenging the three-time European champions.

“Manchester were on
a different level than Inter Milan (in the quarterfinals). We reached
our limits. We will certainly need a wonder to progress,” he said.

No real chance

Schalke, 10th in
the Bundesliga with no real chance of playing in the Champions League
next season, take on Bayern Munich on the weekend hoping a win could
restore some of their lost confidence after United ripped their defence
to shreds for over an hour in a one-sided game.

“We will not give
up in the second leg but the result is pretty clear,” said goalkeeper
Manuel Neuer, who prevented an embarrassingly high-score defeat with
half a dozen superb saves.

His performance was
the solitary Schalke highlight, prompting United coach Sir Alex
Ferguson to label it the best by any goalkeeper against United in his
years in charge.

To have any chance
in the return leg, Schalke need more than just an in-form Neuer. They
must beat United at home, with Manchester having yet to lose this
season in the entire competition, let alone at home.

“Why should we capitulate?” Rangnick asked.

“We need to make things differently and in football many things have
happened. We have shown we can score away from home and we will try to
get our chances in Manchester.”

The
second edition of the Confederation of African Rugby (CAR) North-West
African Women’s Sevens rugby tournament was won by Tunisia over the
Easter weekend as the Nigerian team missed out from the event.

The Nigerian team
had earlier been billed to take part in the tournament. But, according
to Akin Akintola, a representative of the Nigerian Rugby Football
Federation (NRFF), logistics problems ensured that the Nigerian team
were unavailable for the meet.

“We could not get
flights out of the country to Senegal, which was why the ladies could
not make it to the tournament,” said Akintola in a telephone interview
with NEXT.

Tunisia’s women’s
rugby team won the second edition of the tournament at the Sports
College, some 60km from the Senegalese capital, Dakar, after defeating
the hosts 5-0 in a thrilling final. It was a second successive title
for the North Africans who also won the inaugural edition in 2009.

At the last
edition, the Nigerians returned home with a second place finish and
many expected them to go all the way this time around.

Flight arrangements

Expressing
disappointment at this development, Gifty Ann Myers, a representative
of CAR, stated that it should not have happened as Nigeria is looked to
for guidance in the region.

“Flight
arrangements should have been sorted out ahead of time because the NRFF
had almost four months notice to accept and prepare,” she told NEXT
from her base in Accra, Ghana. “We hope that Nigeria will improve on
her administrative structure to avoid such lapses in future.”

One of the
players, Adebimpe Johnson, who had been training for the Senegal
tournament expressed disappointment at the shoddy preparation.

“Sincerely, more
is expected from the NRFF. When I was called for national duty, I was
very happy to be involved, but they left us in confusion not explaining
what was going on. That was very sad,” she lamented.

“We have gone to
Senegal before during the Rugby World Cup African qualifiers, and we
managed to make the trip notwithstanding the challenges of lack of
funds by then,” added Ntiense Williams, a member of CAR’s technical
committee.

“It is not the way
to go especially when we are just returning to international rugby
after a two-years ban by the International Rugby Board,” added Williams
who is of the opinion that it could not have been travel arrangements
that stopped Nigeria from being in the tournament.

Meanwhile, reports
reaching NEXT claim that the inability of the team to feature in
Senegal was because the NRFF did not officially inform the National
Sports Commission (NSC). However, Tony Ohaeri, a spokesman of the NSC,
debunked the claims as rumours.

Seven countries participated at this year’s event. They were
winners Tunisia, Morocco, Cameroun, Egypt, Burkina Faso and Senegal.
Niger, who replaced war-torn Cote d’Ivoire, were disqualified after it
was discovered that they fielded underage players.

Ticket
applications for next year’s London Olympics far exceeded supply with
more than half of the 650 sessions oversubscribed and going to a
ballot, organisers said on Wednesday.

The showcase
opening and closing ceremonies were among those events declared sold
out, with early indications showing that more than 20 million tickets
were applied for and only 6.6 million on offer.

Some 1.8 million
people, more than 95 percent of them British residents eager to be part
of a once-in-a-lifetime home Games, made requests in the six-week
window up to Tuesday’s midnight deadline.

Organisers, who
kept the ticketing website open for an extra hour after a late surge in
demand brought it to a standstill, said applications were received for
every session and every sport in every price range.

“We are thrilled
with the response right across the board, in all sports and all
sessions,” said LOCOG chairman Sebastian Coe in a statement.

“Certain events
have seen massive demand–for example the opening ceremony, which is
more than 10 times oversubscribed–so there will understandably be
disappointment and we will find a way to go back to those people with
other tickets.”

Soldout events

Organisers said
track cycling, rhythmic gymnastics, triathlon, modern pentathlon,
equestrian (cross country) and the opening and closing ceremonies were
sell-out events.

All will go to ballot, as will most of the sessions for swimming and tennis.

LOCOG said they
would now check and de-duplicate applications before running the
ballots to determine who got tickets. Money will then be taken from
accounts from May 10 with customers receiving confirmation in June of
what events they have tickets for.

Unsuccessful applicants will be given further chances in June and July to buy unallocated tickets.

“What is most
encouraging is that the majority of applications are for multiple
tickets and for several sports, which shows that friends and family are
planning to go to the Games together,” said Coe.

Organisers hope to raise about 400 million pounds from ticket sales.

West
Bromwich Albion’s Nigerian forward, Osaze Odemwingie has declared his
readiness to snub any interest from Juventus and stick with the Baggies.

For that to happen
however, the Nigerian international is demanding that West Brom retain
their English Premier League status for another season, and that he be
offered a new contract at the Hawthorns.

Odemwingie has
enjoyed an impressive debut season in the English top flight division,
scoring an impressive 13 goals in 26 starts following his summer
transfer from Russia’s Lokomotiv Moscow.

His performances
for the modest Baggies have caught the attention of a host of top
clubs, both in England and elsewhere across Europe.

Tottenham manager,
Harry Redknapp is reportedly keen on bringing the Nigerian to White
Hart Lane in a bid to bolster his attack for next season’s campaign,
but Italian giants Juventus are most pundits’ favourites to secure the
signature of the former player of French club side, Lille.

West Brom are
however determined to keep the 29-year-old, and are ready to open
negotiations with him over a new deal – something Odemwingie is more
than happy to do, provided the Baggies remain in the Premier League
come the end of the season.

Happy to stay

“I’ve heard a lot
recently about Juventus being interested, but I try not to pay too much
attention to it,” Odemwingie said. “My intention is to continue playing
in England and if West Brom is not relegated I’m only too happy to stay.

West Brom are currently six points clear of relegation with four games remaining in the Premier League season.

“The 13 goals I
have scored in my first year in England is a decent result although I
am aiming for more. Ideally, I would like to finish with at least 15,”
he continued.

He added: “It’s likely that in the summer the management will offer me a new contract on better terms in the summer.”

Jose Mourinho wrote off Real Madrid’s Champions League chances
and accused Barcelona of being favoured by the footballing authorities after
his 10-man side lost their semi-final first leg 2-0 on Wednesday.

Real had midfielder Pepe sent off after 62 minutes and Mourinho
was sent to the stands for his protests soon after, and Lionel Messi took full
advantage to score both goals in a stunned Bernabeu.

“Congratulations to a fantastic football team,” the Real coach
said in a rambling rant at the post-match news conference.

“But congratulations for all they have as well, it must be
difficult to get all this power. Where does this power come from? I don’t know
if it’s because they give UNICEF publicity (on their shirts)?”

Mourinho went on to list Barca’s semifinal victory over Chelsea
in 2009, the Inter Milan semifinal from last season and now “the scandal of the
Bernabeu”, as he suggested unfair red cards had been issued to rivals playing
the Catalan side. “This thing happens in each semifinal,” he said.

“I am here just to ask this question and I hope to get the
answer one day.

“I respect him (Barca coach, Pep Guardiola) a great deal as a
coach and a person…but I would like to see him win a Champions League without
scandals.

“Pep is a fantastic football coach and he has won one Champions
League. I would be ashamed to have won it after the scandal of Stamford Bridge
(when he said Chelsea should have had four penalties).

“I won two Champions Leagues with Porto and Inter and won both
on the pitch. We won with work, effort, sweat and fight.”

Mission impossible

The second of those European crowns came after a famous
rearguard action with 10 men at the Nou Camp last season, losing 1-0 after
having won the first leg 3-1.

However, Mourinho quickly ruled out any chance of another heroic
performance in next Tuesday’s second leg at Barca’s stadium.

“Obviously in the return leg it’s a very difficult mission,” he
added. “It’s not very difficult, it’s impossible.

“They will get to the final and that’s that”

Real have had a player sent off in each of the four ‘Clasicos’
they have played in La Liga, the King’s Cup final and the Champions League this
season, and now will be without the suspended Sergio Ramos and Pepe next week.

Mourinho, who said he was not supposed to be speaking to the
media after having been sent off, will have to watch from the stands.

When asked what he had said to receive the punishment from the
German referee, Wolfgang Stark, he replied: “I didn’t say anything, I just
applauded his decision with two thumbs.

“If I told UEFA and him what I thought and feel, I would end my career now.”
On television replays of the incident he could be seen to say “Well done, well
done” to the fourth official after Pepe was sent off for a high-footed
challenge on Barca fullback Dani Alves.

Nigeria’s
U-20 team, the Flying Eagles may be pitched against strong sides like
Brazil and Argentina, when the draws for this year’s FIFA Under-20
World Cup takes place in Cartegena, Colombia, on Wednesday (2am
Thursday, Nigerian time).

The Flying Eagles
and other African qualifiers; Cameroun, Egypt and Mali are some of the
teams in Pot C for the draws. The other countries in the same pot are
Uruguay, Croatia and Ecuador.

However, the
tournament’s most successful country Argentina are in Pot A along with
hosts Colombia, Brazil, Spain, England and France, which inevitably
means the Flying Eagles will be grouped along with any of these six
teams.

At the Netherlands
2005 edition of the tournament, Nigeria was in Group F with Brazil with
both teams playing out a 0-0 draw in the group’s opening match.

The Samson Siasia-led team went on to reach the finals of the tournament losing 2-1 to Argentina.

No big deal

For Garba Lawal, a
former Super Eagles player and member of the Nigeria Football
Federation (NFF) technical committee, being grouped along any of the
teams should not cause any stir.

“Once you qualify
for a tournament, you are expected to play with any of the other teams
that make it to the championship so whether it is Brazil or Argentina,
it makes no difference to me” he said.

Lawal, who was the
team manager for the 2009 U-17 team, whose players form the bedrock of
the present Flying Eagles team, said he would even prefer to play
tougher oppositions in the group stages.

“While I will say
that there are actually no minnows in football again, I will actually
prefer playing the so called tougher teams in the group’s stage; they
give you a better assessment of your team” he said.

Getting the ticket

Nigeria beat Gambia
2-0 on Sunday at the ongoing African Youth Championship (AYC) to
complete the African quartet heading to the FIFA U-20 World Cup.
Nigeria, with five AYC titles joined Cameroun, Mali and Egypt as the
continent’s contingent to Colombia 2011.

Defending FIFA U-20
World Cup champions Ghana, were eliminated along with the Gambians.
Ghana, who drew with Cameroon 1-1 on Sunday, became the first African
team to lift the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2009 when they beat Brazil in
the final.

Nigeria had
previously been the most successful youth team from the continent,
having lost in the final match at both the 1989 and the 2005 editions.
They will look to match those accomplishments in Colombia, which will
host the FIFA U-20 World Cup in eight cities from July 29 to August 20.

World number one, Lee Westwood is growing increasingly weary with being asked about his failure to win a first major title and told reporters in Seoul on Tuesday, that the question was getting on his nerves.

The Briton, speaking to reporters in Seoul ahead of the $2.8m Ballantines Championship, said becoming world number one and winning a major were separate issues and that his only focus was to keep playing good golf.

“The amount of times I have to answer it gets on my nerves,” Westwood said. “This might be the very last time I could be answering this question. It could be no comment after this.

“The world rankings and major championships are two completely separate things,” added Westwood, who celebrated his 38th birthday by winning the Indonesian Masters in Jakarta at the weekend.

That victory, combined with fellow Englishman Luke Donald’s failure to win The Heritage, moved him back above Germany’s Martin Kaymer into top spot.

“I haven’t won a major yet but hope to do so soon. I’ve had a lot of good chances to win majors but it just hasn’t happened.

“But the world rankings are all about consistency and playing well week-in and week-out, which I tend to do. The secret to being world number one is having the consistency, and all parts of your game have to be good to do that.”

Greater pressure

Westwood, who was world number one for 17 weeks after deposing Tiger Woods in November, acknowledged the pressure was greater having reached the summit of men’s golf.

“Obviously with being number one there is a lot more responsibility,” he said. “You have a lot more things to do, media commitments and things like that.

“People want a lot more of your time, it becomes a bit difficult to cram everything in and leave time for practicing golf and doing what got to you where you are. That’s the toughest part of it.”

Three-times major champion, Ernie Els and local favourite Yang Yong-eun, the first Asian man to win a major at the 2009 PGA Championship, are set to push Westwood this week at the Ballantines, which is co-sanctioned by the Asian, European and Korean Tours.

Teenage Korean sensation, Noh Seung-yul, the reigning Asian Tour Order of Merit champion, and European Ryder Cup players Ian Poulter and Miguel Angel Jimenez are also among a quality field at the Blackstone Golf Club near Seoul.

“My confidence is high,” said Westwood. “I didn’t realise the world number one had never competed in Korea before so it’s a bit of an honour.”

An
Indian court on Tuesday ordered that the former chief organiser of the
Delhi Commonwealth Games (CWG) be kept in police custody. This followed
on the heels of a crackdown on businesses and government officials in a
string of corruption cases to hit the emerging global giant.

Federal police
Monday arrested Suresh Kalmadi, a senior lawmaker who has been
suspended from the ruling Congress party, charged with cheating in
tenders for timing equipment worth millions of dollars in the October
sporting event. Police will hold him for eight days from Tuesday.

The case is one of
several high-profile corruption scandals to strain the Congress
party-led government and spark protests in the Indian capital against
what is seen as a culture of near impunity for the country’s elite.

In a separate case,
a court deferred a decision on whether to grant bail to five executives
charged with manipulating the sale of telecoms licences in collusion
with senior officials in the ruling coalition.

New Delhi may have
been deprived up to $39 billion in lost revenue due to the flawed
awarding of second-generation mobile telecoms licences, a state auditor
has said.

Mr Kalmadi, who has
become a pantomime villain in the Indian media, had a sandal thrown at
him as he made his way to a court Tuesday. He has denied any wrongdoing
and his lawyer called the arrest “illegal.” “The accused person entered
into a criminal conspiracy to cheat the government of India in the
matter of awarding contracts for timings, scoring and results system to
be acquired for the CWG, Delhi 2010,” V.K. Sharma, a federal police
lawyer for the prosecution, told the court Tuesday.

The $6 billion
event was billed as India’s answer to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but
descended into rows over leaking stadiums, filthy athletes’ rooms and
corruption scandals.

Mr Kalmadi’s aides
formed a tight phalanx around the lawmaker from the western city of
Pune as he walked out of the court and the judge sat down to write the
order. A female aide shouted to him: “God is with us.” Rows of police
armed with batons roped a path for Mr Kalmadi to come in and out of the
courtroom.

Months of
relentless headlines about corruption scandals and a vocal political
opposition have roiled the government, rattled investors and put the
brakes on ambitious economic reforms in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s
second term.

The Congress party
suspended Suresh Kalmadi Monday after he was charged with favouring a
Swiss firm to provide 1.4 billion rupees ($31.6 million) worth of
timing equipment to the Games.

Mr Kalmadi, who was
booed at the Games’ opening ceremony in front of a global TV audience
in October, had his constituency office in Pune vandalised by a gang of
angry youths Monday night.

On Tuesday, onlookers shouted a mix of support and abuse as Mr Kalmadi emerged from the court.

Telecoms case

In an adjacent
courtroom, former telecoms minister, Andimuthu Raja, was seen slumped
over a table as a case over the sale of telecoms licences and spectrum
continued Tuesday.

Mr Raja, along with
executives from telecoms firms and the daughter of the leader of a
regional party that is a key government ally, have been charged in the
telecoms licence case.

In another
courtroom, a Delhi high court judge deferred a hearing on the bail
applications of senior officials from Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani
(ADA) Group and the Indian joint ventures of Norway’s Telenor and the
UAE’s Etisalat until Friday at the earliest.

Their bail plea was
rejected by a lower court last week after federal police said the
executives could abscond or try to influence witnesses. They will be
held in jail pending the trial or until they are granted bail. All
those on trial in the telecoms case deny wrongdoing.

Federal police
Monday added more names to their charge sheet in the telecoms case,
including the lawmaker daughter of the chief minister of Tamil Nadu
state. She was accused of taking bribes routed via a TV channel owned
by her family.

The case could
potentially threaten Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s ruling coalition
and provoke a popular backlash in ongoing state elections, including in
Tamil Nadu, where Congress is allied to the ruling Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam (DMK) party.

The DMK threatened
to pull ministers from the coalition if members of the chief minister’s
family were charged, according to media reports.

The DMK will meet
in the state capital, Chennai, on Wednesday to discuss their coalition
with the Congress party, a spokesman for the party told the NDTV news
channel.

The DMK had also
threatened to withdraw from the government in March in a row over
seat-sharing arrangements in the Tamil Nadu election, for which results
are out on May 13.

However, analysts question whether the DMK would act on such a
threat, given that it needs Congress’s clout in the state as much as
Congress needs the DMK’s 18 seats to maintain its federal majority.
Congress could also look to other smaller parties to prop up its
coalition.

Nigerian
defender, Taye Taiwo will be leaving Olympique Marseille and the French
Championnat for the Italian Serie A after reaching an agreement with AC
Milan.

According to a
report in French newspaper L’Equipe, the Nigerian international has put
pen to paper on a three-year deal with the Rossoneri – seven-time
winners of Europe’s biggest club competition, the Champions League.

The contract of the
highly-rated Nigerian defender, who has been at Marseille since January
2005, runs out in June, but he has been linked with several major
European clubs since the start of the year.

However, the former
Lobi Stars of Makurdi ace last month revealed that he has set his
sights on a move to the Italian top flight division, and has now
reportedly reached an agreement with the San Siro club on a three-year
deal.

“I’m very pleased that Milan have shown an interest in signing me.

Milan are my first
option when I leave Marseille this summer,” said the 25- year-old last
month in an interview with Canal Football Club.

Nevertheless, there has not been any official statement confirming the deal from Taiwo’s camp.

There has also not been any statement from Marseille or Milan who are still in the race for their respective national titles.

Marseille, who only
last weekend clinched the French League Cup at the expense of
Montpellier, with Taiwo grabbing the match-winning goal towards the end
of the game, are second on the Ligue 1 table, while Milan are close to
wrapping up their first Serie A title in over half a decade.

Defensive worries

But the management
of the Rossoneri has never hidden their desire to bring a fresh
left-back to the San Siro following the disappointing performances of
the duo of Marek Jankulovski and Luca Antonini this season.

So unacceptable has
their performances been this term, that Milan’s coach, Massimo Allegri,
has had to call upon the services of the elderly Gianluca Zambrotta a
number of times to fill the role.

Urby Emmanuelson,
who arrived in the January transfer window, has also played in the
left-back position but is more comfortable playing as a winger.

So Milan will be
hoping that Taiwo will be the answer to their defensive worries,
although no official statement to that effect is expected until the end
of the season.

However, on
Wednesday, Marseille will resume their quest to reclaim top spot on the
Ligue 1 table with a game against Nice, with Taiwo expected to be
involved in the game even as he looks set to be suspended by the French
league body following his post-match utterances at the end of last
weekend’s game.

The defender
targeted unsporting remarks at fans of rivals PSG, a club based in
Paris, venue of last Saturday’s game against Montpellier.

A suspension could however be placed upon Taiwo before this weekend’s league match against Auxerre.

The
final for the Covenant Football League ended on Monday with Peter
Pioneers emerging winners by beating Rock FC by a lone goal.

The match tagged
the ‘Final Showdown’ saw the favourites, Rock FC, coming up short
behind the eventual winners. A converted free kick in the seventh
minute put the Pioneers ahead and that made the difference in the match.

Rock tried every trick in the book to overcome the Pioneers but found their opponents’ defence to hard to breach.

In the second half,
tension arose as both teams tried to get on the score sheet. In the
75th, a scuffle saw Rock FC’s Akinyinka Oludele sent off for being rude
to the referee after he had been handed a second yellow card.

In the third-place match, House of Judah beat Zion FC by a lone goal.

David Mohammed, a
representative of Covenant Christian Centre, organisers of the league,
was happy that the final turned out successful:

“We started the league March 19 and I am happy that it has ended up like this,” he said.

The first, second and third place winners were all handed medals.
The highest goal scorer, Adeyemo Adetunji of Rock FC with eight goals
to his kitty was given a trophy while the golden glove was won by Idowu
Bakare of Peter Pioneers who did not concede a goal throughout the
tournament.