Nigeria Content Online

At
full-time in the game against Romania on Saturday, October 9 at the
Parc De Prince, new French coach, Laurent Blanc and his players looked
very relieved to have won 2-0. Les Blues’ revolution under Blanc, who
is referred to as ‘Le Presidente’ had finally started.

Italy, France,
England are some of the football elite that have had to change or tweak
their systems in the past three months on the back of below-par
performances in South Africa. Though Nigeria cannot be grouped with the
above countries – who between them have won six World Cups, Nigeria can
be categorised as an African power.

With two Africa Cup
of Nations Cup trophies, six silver medals and the same number of
bronze medals, the Eagles have always been in or around the podium when
it comes to African football.

But Italy and
France have since moved on from not qualifying for the second round of
the World Cup by appointing new managers in Cesare Prandelli and
Laurent Blanc respectively, while Nigeria is yet to have a substantive
coach, for real planning to change players and systems to start.

In the case of
England, Fabio Capello has given the benefit of the doubt; and he is
using this second chance to bring in new, young and hungrier players
into the squad. But Nigeria is stuck with the same old players, who
have failed to improve their uninspiring performances.

Same old legs, and script

Members of the
football family in Nigeria believe that the Eagles’ last game against
Guinea in Conakry showed the true level of Nigerian football. They
contend that fans have always had an exaggerated image of Nigeria, and
that ‘small’ countries like Guinea are showing that potential is not
enough; planning, hard-work and commitment can and make the difference
between a loss and a win.

Commenting on that match, former national player and now coach of Kwara United, Kadiri Ikhana said:

“Even before this
match was played, I said each of the teams had 50 percent chance of
taking the day. The match itself – looking at the first half, the
Eagles were not so good but in the second half their game improved. We
had more chances of scoring- like 60 to their 40- but we refused to
take them. See how many goals we missed. Guinea on the other hand, took
their only chance and converted it to a goal.”

Many argue that the
outcome of the match was determined by youth, fitness and commitment
and that the Guineans rather than place premium on pedigree were more
concerned with current form. This is believed by many to be the reason
why a youngster like Kevin Constant, who scored the goal against
Nigeria, kept Guinean football greats like Ismael Bangoura and Pascal
Feindouno on the bench.

Not playing to win

“I think we did not
play as we were supposed to. There was not too much fight in the
attack. Only (Obafemi) Martins was moving forward. It was like we were
playing with just two attackers against their four defenders. Obinna
Nsofor is more of an attacker but he was playing in the midfield,” said
former Eagles player, Garba Lawal, who is at a loss about what caused
the lack of commitment.

Some analysts say
these Europe-based players know where their bread is buttered. Their
clubs pay a lot of money to be represented and that cannot be risked on
second rate pitches like the one they played on in Conakry.

“If we take a
mixture of Kano Pillars and Enyimba players they would have represented
us better. What is the makeup of this statement? The players will be
hungrier and more committed to the cause and maybe not necessarily
younger,” said Sola Aiyepeku, a football commentator.

Lawal added that
absence of Osaze Odemwingie, Mikel Obi and Dickson Etuhu in the game
against Guinea is not an excuse for the defeat.

“The likes of Osaze
were not there because they had injuries but even if they were there
the team may not have won. The team is not about anyone person,” he
said. “The way forward for the Eagles is for players to be more
committed. If they play with commitment even if they do not win, we the
people would be able to salute them and say they did their best.”

Officials culpable

Ikhana is not too worried about the loss and he believes the Eagles will qualify for Equatorial Guinea/Gabon 2012 Nations Cup.

“This is a minus
for us but I believe it would gear them up to do better in subsequent
matches. This notwithstanding, I see us qualifying for the Nations’
Cup.”

Former Eagles coach
and defender, Christian Chukwu blamed officials of the team, who are
always afraid of the consequences of a loss.

“The problem we
have is that we are afraid to lose matches, but did we not lose on
Sunday despite inviting 15 Europe-based stars for the match, which
ordinarily the home-based should have formed at least 70 per cent of
the squad?

“If we had paraded
mostly home-based players and we still lost the match, we would have
been happy that at least we are rebuilding our team,” Chukwu said.

“This is the time
to rebuild. This is the time to go in search of talented, young and
desperate home-based players, players who are hungry to prove that they
can play in the Eagles too.

“We are not
rebuilding. We can’t keep using the same players. We are overstretching
them. We need to give the home-based players the chance to prove
themselves. If we don’t play them, we won’t be able to discover new
players for the national team.”

Like Chukwu, many
believe that without a shake-up of the Super Eagles – to allow the
youth, better coaches, and administrators who understand the game plan
take the reigns, football might just end up like some other sports –
where Nigeria reigned supreme on the continent some years ago but is
now playing catch-up.

Michel Platini,
UEFA President said after the 2010 World Cup in South Africa that he
was not surprised at the composition of the first, second and third
placed teams – Spain, Holland and Germany. To Platini, success is not
achieved by coincidence.

“The countries that did well have the most youth competitions and
spend the most on training young players. It is no coincidence they
happened to do well. Investment, competition and training pays off.”

The Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India has ended and our worst fears have not come to pass.

Instead, we have
been pleasantly surprised by the feats of a contingent written off as
being incapable of doing big things on the big stage.

Eleven gold medals
from athletes who in the last two editions of the games struggled to
haul in ten golds, certainly calls for some celebration.

The performance in
Delhi confirms the belief held in many quarters within and outside
Nigeria that this country is not lacking in talent; that with the right
mix of variables in place, they will excel in the international arena.

The adventure in
Delhi is a tale of commitment and patriotism. From Daniel Igali, the
former wrestler, who as technical adviser of our wrestling team, did
not wait for funds from government before assembling his team for
camping in Bayelsa to Helen Okus who with a slipped disc still went
into battle for a bronze medal for her country, the Nigerian team in
Delhi has shown that there is still such a thing as love for one’s
country.

Two weeks ago in
this column I had paid tribute to the Nigerian athlete and held that
for the most part our successes in international sporting competitions
were achieved not because there were deliberate policies put in place
by our sports administrators to engender success but as a result of the
will to succeed by our athletes.

That cast-iron will
was on display in Delhi. Our athletes, spurned by their officials and
derided by fans as never -do wells, determined to turn the table on
their detractors and we are all better off for it.

At the risk of
sounding like a broken record, I say it again here that one of the
surest routes to Nigeria’s greatness is sports. Consider not only how
positively the performance in Delhi will rob off on our image abroad.
Consider also, how President Goodluck Jonathan, buffeted on all sides
for his political faux pas, must be relishing this moment of respite.
Without making any tangible input into this success, he must thumping
his chest in satisfaction at the performance of “our boys and girls” in
Delhi.

I hope President
Jonathan will have the grace to do what is only right – and that is to
reward the athletes and their officials in a fitting way. For if the
men and women in Abuja and other centres of political power in this
country without as much as breaking sweat appropriate sizeable chunks
of the common patrimony for themselves and their generations yet
unborn, it is only fair that those who have engaged in meaningful toil
for the fatherland should be amply rewarded particularly as they have
no other means of livelihood.

Destroying the vermin

Now that our
athletes have pointed the way and have shown just what it means to want
to die for their country, will those ‘local champions’ who have
constituted themselves into one huge millstone on the neck of Nigerian
sports, not repent of their follies?

If youngsters, who
have repeatedly given their all and have not been given back much in
return, still willingly offer themselves as vehicles for national
glory, will the men who have eviscerated Nigerian sports in the last
two decades not realise that the time has come for them to be sensible
and stop selling their fatherland for a few shekels?

Will these
quislings who are quick to take sides with international bodies against
the very country that afforded them the opportunity to get into those
organisations not realise the futility of their actions?

Clearly, the time
has come for us to begin to take a closer look at the kinds of men we
entrust with the responsibility to administer sports in this country.
It is a blight on us as a people that a few individuals will repeatedly
poke fingers into our eyes and rather than snap those fingers in two,
we whine about how powerless we are.

Can a few
individuals be greater than an entire country? Will President Jonathan
sit down and allow a few unpatriotic characters continually cast us in
the role of charlatans internationally while they profit from their
association with us at the same time.

In case our president has forgotten he has as much responsibility to
sports as he has to other sectors of our national life and he must
begin to take an interest in what happens in the sector.

Not
many Nigerians know Helen Okus, Ifeoma Iheanacho and Daniel Amas. Even
among their countrymen hooked on sports, their names do not ring a
bell. Yet they are patriotic Nigerians; athletes who put their lives on
the line for their country.

Okus, Iheanacho and Amas were part of Nigeria’s wrestling team to the Commonwealth Games, which ended in India on Thursday.

For the trio it was
better they suffered some physical discomfort rather than see their
country miss a shot at glory. As the Nigerian contingent got set to
leave Delhi on Thursday, arrangement was made for Amas and Okus to
remain behind to undergo surgery before coming back to Nigeria.

Giving their all

Daniel Igali, Technical Adviser of the Nigerian wrestling team explained why they did not return with their colleagues.

“Right now Daniel
Amas lost two of his teeth in one of the matches and is staying behind
in India for surgery. The same goes for Helen Okus who wrestled all
through the tournament with a slipped disc which is a very serious
injury.

“Her right arm was
almost numb but she is staying behind for surgery while Ifeoma
Iheanacho could barely walk a day before the competition because of
fever, and I didn’t even think she was going to compete but she still
went ahead to get a bronze.

“They believe they
can give their all for the country and if anything happens to them the
country will take care of them and that is what I have learnt about
them,” added Igali, who won an Olympic gold.

“The one thing that
I have learnt from our athletes is that they give you everything,”
Igali said on Thursdayin Lagos. “The one thing that I know about our
athletes is that if you tell them to give you 100 push-ups they give
you 120. They are willing to give everything in a match.”

Tactics

Prior to the
Commonwealth Games, not many people expected the country’s wrestlers to
put up such a remarkable showing at the Games especially as the team
never had the needed international exposure leading up to the event in
India.

Besides the African
Championships in June and the World Championships, which came up in
September in Russia, our wrestlers never had any other opportunity to
prepare for the Commonwealth Games, which makes their feat in India all
the more remarkable as only the 14 medals achieved through the combined
efforts of the country’s weightlifting and power lifting teams was able
to surpass the feat of the wrestling team.

But this wouldn’t
have been possible but for some behind the scene moves by Igali, a
former Olympian who was one of 50 Nigerians honoured by the federal
government during the country’s 50th Independence celebrations.

These included
confiscating cell phones and setting curfews for the athletes, as well
as staying up long into the night to gather vital information on
opponents.

“When I see the
draws, I go on Google and You Tube to scout on the athletes they are
going to wrestle,” he said. “I don’t sleep until I get all the details
about their opponents which is usually after 3am.”

And since protests
have become a part of the sport, it became common sight to see Igali
halting matches on a number of occasions most prominently in the 96kg
Men’s Freestyle final between Sinvie Boltic and Canada’s Kory Jarvis
where he launched one of his trademark protests with just under half a
second to the end of the bout.

“You have to be
ready to take that option so that your athlete can sometimes take a
much needed break like the case of Sinvie who was already gassed out in
that fight,” Igali said. “After the protest he had 20 seconds to hang
in there and he got through and got us a gold.

“That can sometimes be the difference between winning and losing.”

Teenage sensation

There was also the
case of 17-year-old sensation Odunayo Adekuroye who prior to her bout
against Canada’s Carol Huynh, had no idea she was about to come up
against the reigning world and Olympic champion.

“She wrestled a
Canadian (Carol Huynh) in the first round and she was so confident of
beating her but narrowly lost the bout,” said Igali.

“She was inconsolable afterwards until I informed her that the person she had lost to was the world and Olympic champion.”

The effect of this
revelation was clear to see as Adekuroye went on to claim a bronze
medal after back-to-back flawless 7-0 wins over Scotland’s Fiona
Robertson in the semi finals, and South Africa’s Brumilda Leeuw in the
bronze medal match.

All down to teamwork

But Igali, who
before the Games was expecting the team to return home with 10 medals,
insists credit for the team’s success isn’t solely his but the combined
efforts of every member of the wrestling team, including his coaching
assistants.

“I will have to
give the credit to the athletes because they are the ones that actually
competed,” he said. “It’s the person who’s in the arena that the credit
should go to, then the coaches: David Onoapo, Okporu Enekpedekumo,
Tiebiri Godswill and Tony Ubaka who were with us in camp and carried
out all the programmes we had put in place for the athletes.

“I have been working with these coaches since 2007 and what we have been trying to do is to encourage total wrestling.

“The results from
this competition are what we have been imparting in the athletes for
the past three years. By the time we have more regular competitions I
think we can expect better results.”

Poor wrestling background

Only India and
Canada finished above Nigeria in the wrestling event of the
Commonwealth Games which is all the more remarkable considering that
the only wrestling championship in the 2010 calendar in Nigeria is the
championship bankrolled by the Bayelsa State government which doesn’t
come up until next month.

Such is the
pitiable state of wrestling in Nigeria. But Igali is quick to admit
that the Delhi feat would had been much more difficult to accomplish
but for the support of the National Sports Commission (NSC).

“The NSC has done
well,” Igali said. “We went to the African Championships in June and
four of our wrestlers that won gold went to the world championships in
September.

“We have a very
good relationship with the NSC, particularly with (its
director-general) Patrick Ekeji. He is someone who has been very
responsive to our needs and doesn’t mind me calling him up very late at
night.

I can call him up at two in the morning and see him at anytime of the day.

“He made it
possible for us to get the programmes that we may not had been able to
get in the past. As an example, at the 2007 All Africa Games in Algiers
we were able to go with about six coaches, but in the past we only went
with two. While in India we went with four coaches, so we are beginning
to get more recognition from the NSC.”

Besides the NSC,
the Bayelsa State government, particularly the governor, Timipre Sylva,
who has never hidden his love for the sport, had been most helpful
especially in the area of training for the athletes.

“He (Sylva) has
been very supportive of wrestling and has even promised to get a
32-seater bus for the national team,” said is Igali, who is from
Bayelsa State.

“He even came
around to see the team in training a number of times in the company of
(wrestling federation boss) Austin Edeze and urged the athletes to
bring glory to the country with a promise to reward them for every
medal they get to win in India.”

Target

The topmost
priority for Igali at the moment are next year’s All-Africa Games in
Mozambique and the World Championships in Turkey which serves as
qualifying tournaments for the London 2012 Olympics where he hopes one
of his wrestlers will finally be able to secure a medal.

But if that doesn’t
come to pass, don’t expect Igali to leave the stage for one of his
assistants to take charge as he insists he is going nowhere until a
Nigerian wrestler, wearing the country’s colours, wins an Olympic medal.

“We have quite a number of coaches in the coaching crew but I don’t
see myself leaving the scene until we win an Olympic gold medal,” he
added.

The
19th edition of the Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi, India has
come and gone leaving different memories for different people. The
Games earlier dogged by controversies about the readiness of the host
to stage a befitting event soon fizzled out with the games eventually
turning out to be one of best organised Games in recent times.

Apart from the
fact that three Nigerian athletes tested positive for banned
substances, Team Nigeria had a wonderful outing. The trio, Damola
Osayomi, Gabriel Okon and Folashade Abugan, are currently awaiting the
IAAF verdict on the length of their respective bans.

In the midst of all
this, the country broke new marks in some sports like wrestling which
is not regarded as a stronghold, but failed to maintain a grip on some
others like boxing and table tennis.

With a compact team
competing in just seven sports, Nigeria won 11 gold, 8 silver and 14
bronze medals to finish ninth on the final medal table thus emerging as
the third best African team.

With this success
recorded, many have advocated for a proactive approach towards
preparing for the All African Games scheduled for Maputo next year and
the 2012 London Olympics.

Paul Obodoechina,
an athletics coach, who was part of the Nigerian contingent to the
first Youth Olympics held in Singapore, is pleased with our performance.

“It was a good
performance, no doubt but we must not be carried away by the success
story and fail to realise that greater challenges lie ahead. The
Commonwealth Games was supposed to be used to test our strength and
know where we currently stand but the absence of top athletes at the
games has not given us a true picture of ourselves,” he said.

In the absence of
the Commonwealth’s best athletes like Usain Bolt and Ashafa Powell,
only a handful of world class performances were on display. The men’s
100m race won by Jamaican, Lerone Clark was particularly a drab event.
This was because all seven Jamaicans who had run faster than Clark this
year, including the world’s fastest man Usain Bolt, did not come to
Delhi.

This is made more
glaring by the fact that Clark’s winning time of 10.12 seconds is the
112th fastest time in the world this year, a time slower than that run
by his countryman Don Quarrie to win gold at the 1978 Commonwealth
Games in Edmonton, Canada.

Like Victoria, like Atlanta

Despite all this,
Nigeria’s Sports Minister, believes the country can begin to hope for a
better outing at the subsequent Games coming up, most importantly the
London 2012 Olympics.

“If we were able to
achieve this level of success I wonder what would have happened if we
had prepared properly. But this does not mean that this is the way it
will continue. We will not rest on our laurels and I intend to see to
it that we build on this success by preparing properly for the London
2012 Olympics,” Bio said last week.

With the
performance in Delhi being Nigeria’s best in sixteen years, there’s a
feeling that perhaps Nigeria may go on to achieve big things at the
London Olympics in two year’s time. The feeling is premised on the fact
that in 1994 when Nigeria had its best outing to date at the games, it
went on two years later to win its first gold medal at Olympics when
Chioma Ajunwa finished in first place in Long Jump at the Atlanta
Olympic Games.

Tainted medals

Despite its good fortune in Delhi, the failed dope test of three of its athletes leaves a question mark on our medals haul.

Stripped of one
gold and two silver medals, Nigeria turned out to be the biggest
culprit on the list of countries whose athletes failed dope tests at
the games.

Coincidentally for
Nigeria, all the cases of drug use were recorded in athletics, a trend,
which Tony Urhobo, former Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN)
President, described as disturbing.

“It’s a huge
disgrace and a dent on our image. Of course it could give room for
question on how clean the other medals are,” he said.

Urhobo disagreed with the argument that some of the athletes may have taken the substance they were found guilty of in error.

“That is not true,
the athletes know what they are taking; they were only hoping that they
would not be caught which eventually they were.”

For Urhobo, sports
officials should be more concerned about warning athletes on the
dangers of using drugs rather than trying to cover up for them when
they get caught. He advised that adequate structures should be in place
for preparation to begin for the next set of games the country will be
competing in.

“The issue of drugs
and sport need to be addressed squarely, our athletes should know that
there are no short cut to success, they need to train hard to attain
the feat they desire. It is unfair where you want to win at all cost
and then take drugs to outwit others, such acts ought to condemned
totally,” he said.

Lalit Bhanot, the
secretary general of the organising committee of the Delhi Games,
called the latest set of incidents “unfortunate” and said though the
federations and the National Anti-Doping Agency had done their best,
testing athletes regularly, it was difficult to control doping if
sports people were dedicated to taking banned substances.

Over the years,
drugs and sports have gone hand-in-hand since competitive events began.
In ancient Greece, Olympic athletes would eat specially prepared meat
(including lizards), and drink magic potions to boost their
performances.

It’s no different
in modern sport, which is rife with suspicions about
performance-enhancing drug use by many top athletes. The usual suspects
are human-growth hormones (which promote physical development),
anabolic steroids (drugs that resemble testosterone and control the
metabolic rate), beta-blockers, erythropoietin, stimulants and
diuretics.

But even more
serious than the implications for fairness is the fact that many of
these drugs have severe side effects, which are not completely
understood even today. They pose genuine health risks, which go
unheeded by athletes intent on winning their events at all costs.

One athlete who
paid with his life was Danish cyclist Enemark Jensen, who lost
consciousness and fell off his bike during the 1960 Olympics in Rome,
causing his death. He was found to be under the influence of
amphetamines.

With three Nigerians currently serving bans for drug use yet to
complete their punishment and another set primed to join them, the
evils in drug use needs to be emphasised.

Nigerians are
exasperated with the way our football has been governed and are
desirous of change. This led many to hope FIFA’s ban would remain in
place to force us put our house in order. We should begin to learn what
really matters to FIFA if we didn’t know before – “what is FIFA really
after”? I have selected a few of FIFA’s scandals to shed more light on
FIFA’s ways.

1. Polish football threatened

In 2005 Polish
authorities began an investigation into widespread corruption within
Polish football. In July 2006, the Polish sports minister criticised
the PZPN (Polish Football Association) for failing to take adequate
steps to fight corruption, and announced an audit of the organisation.
In January 2007, PZPN board member Wit Żelazko was arrested by Wrocław
police. Shortly thereafter, the entire PZPN board was suspended by the
sports ministry. This move displeased FIFA which announced that the
principle of autonomy of football associations was of utmost
importance. The Polish sports ministry, Prime Minister Jarosław
Kaczynski, and most fans felt that the battle against corruption was
more important, but when FIFA threatened sanctions, the sports ministry
backed down and agreed to re-instate the PZPN board. This certainly
sounds familiar to us.

2. Millions allotted to Goal Project schemes that never materialised

a) In 2000, FIFA
agreed a $471,364 grant towards a training centre for the Antiguan
& Barbadian Football Association outside the Antiguan capital of St
Johns. For three years the site stayed empty but FIFA did not do
anything. In 2003, the Antiguan government tried to intervene and FIFA
suspended the membership of the Antiguan & Barbadian FA, whose
national team missed out the 2004 Olympic qualifiers as a result. The
suspension was lifted later that year but nothing changed until 2005,
when FIFA did do something: they handed over even more money, a
$503,098 Goal grant for a second project. This grant was for a pitch,
floodlights, security fencing and dressing rooms to the training
centre, which had still not been built. FIFA has nothing to say about
either project and directs enquiries to its own website, which simply
shows an empty field in Antigua.

b) Goal project in
Barbados “shelved until further notice due to a lack of progress”
despite a $400,000 grant being agreed five years ago towards a proposed
$627,500 training centre. According to the Barbados Goal link, the
first stone was laid in July 2003 yet the project has been abandoned.

Warner’s CONCACAF
region has 39 members and 35 are also full FIFA members. Of those 35,
all bar one (the US) have received Goal grants.

3. Jack Warner Scandals

a) 2006 World Cup
Ticket Scandal: Warner has been accused of corruption on BBC’s Panorama
for repeatedly taking advantage of his position for financial gain.
FIFA’s auditors, Ernst & Young, estimated that his family made a
profit of at least $1 million from reselling 2006 World Cup tickets
that Warner had ordered.

b) Trinidad and
Tobago 2006 World Cup bonuses: Before the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Warner,
as special advisor to the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation,
brokered a deal between the Federation and the players on Trinidad and
Tobago’s 2006 World Cup team to share the proceeds from their
participation in the World Cup. After the tournament the Federation
declared revenue of TT$18.25 million, costs of TT$17.9 million and
offered the players a split of TT$5,644.08 per player. The players
rejected this figure, disputing the Federation’s numbers.

The Trinidad and
Tobago government later revealed that the Federation received in excess
of TT$173 million for their part in the tournament in Germany. The
T&TFF proposed that the bonus dispute be heard before the UK Sports
Dispute Resolution Panel and the players agreed. Arbitrator Ian Mill QC
heard the case and ruled that Warner had “the authority of the TTFA to
commit it to financial transactions” and that the players were entitled
to 50 per cent of the FIFA World Cup participation money and the
commercial revenues gained from Trinidad and Tobago’s qualification, as
well as half the net income from World Cup warm-up matches.

4. Jérôme Valcke

The 46 year old
scored the worst-ever own goal. Ten months ago, the Frenchman’s career
was in tatters but now he’s back running football as the general
secretary of FIFA. He lost his job in marketing at FIFA after a judge
ruled he had lied over a sponsorship deal. A New York judge had stated
that Valcke, then FIFA’s marketing director, had lied to two groups –
MasterCard and Visa – bidding for the right to sponsor the 2010 and
2014 World Cups. This prompted his employer to “part company” with
Valcke and three of his colleagues. “FIFA’s negotiations breached its
business principles,” the governing body said. “FIFA cannot possibly
accept such conduct among its own employees.”

His recent return
to FIFA as its top appointed official ranks as an extraordinary shift
in fortune. It shows how highly FIFA president Sepp Blatter must rate
the former Canal Plus executive that he was rehired even though the
affair in effect cost FIFA half the revenues it was expecting from the
eight-year sponsorship.

“Our world is a very small world,” says Valcke of his return to favour.

“We worked closely
together for three years. Whatever Blatter asked me, and what I
committed to deliver when I joined FIFA, I did. So we have a strong
relationship, Blatter and myself”. And very rewarding too if I must say
so.

FIFA’s track record
in handling corruption allegations indicate a habit of either looking
the other way or dishing out no more than ‘a slap on the wrist’ to
offending officials in their organisation. So how can they possibly be
expected to encourage any investigation and punishments to FIFA
representatives [like our NFF]? In my opinion, FIFA has never pretended
to encourage governments to fights corruption within their federations
or associations because it could affect them adversely so their people
are protected no matter what. So we shouldn’t expect them to change, we
have to effect the change ourselves.

I reiterate my previous statement in previous articles that, in
matters of government interference or not, FIFA does not have the
[moral] right to apply the same rules to most African countries as it
does to the more developed ones in the rest of the world. This
never-ending circle of banning and unbanning events will continue so
long as FIFA keep ignoring Africa’s uniqueness rather than accepting
the stark reality of it. So long as governments still provide most [and
sometimes all] of the funding in football [or sports], they have the
right to ask questions and investigate how the money is spent as well
as demand a significant role in administration. However, our
government’s latest interference in a long list of many was totally
unacceptable and must be stopped permanently for our football to grow.
If FIFA is sincere, insistent and serious about zero government
interference all over Africa, the organisation should be working
hand-in-hand with individual governments, football federations or
associations to find unique solutions; rather than issue offensive
statements, bans and warnings that suggest a picture of complicity in
alleged and proven cases of corruption.

Nigeria
has never won a medal in wrestling at the Olympic Games, but the
technical adviser of the country’s wrestling team, Daniel Igali, is
confident a wrestler in Nigerian colours will get to achieve that at
the London 2012 Olympics.

Nigerian-born Igali
actually won a gold medal at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney,
Australia; but achieved it in the colours of his adopted country,
Canada. He now wants a wrestler in Nigerian colours to follow suite at
the next Olympic Games in London following the impressive performance
posted by the country’s team to the just concluded Commonwealth Games
in New Delhi, India. Nigeria finished third overall in the wrestling
event behind the hosts and Canada with a total of 13 medals, including
three gold medals – one respectively in the men’s Freestyle and
Greco-Roman events by the duo of Sinvie Boltic and Efionayi
Agbonavbare, as well as Ifeoma Nwoye’s gold one in the women’s
freestyle.

The prophesy

Only the 14 medals
achieved through the combined efforts of the Nigerian weightlifting and
powerlifting teams was able to surpass the feat of the wrestling team;
and Igali can’t see anything stopping his wrestlers from climbing the
podium at the London Games. “What happened at this Commonwealth Games
is a foreshadowing of what is going to happen in the near future
because I can tell you right now that we will win medals at the
Olympics,” he said. “It does not matter the problems we will get to
encounter along the way because I have taken it upon myself to lead
these athletes to a successful Olympics. Even if I have to get the
athletes to live in my house in order to achieve this, I will do that
because I know what it takes and I am going to do everything to make it
happen. I am so sure that come 2012, I don’t care what it takes, that
we will be on the podium and wrestling will bring glory to Nigeria.”

World
number one and top seed, Rafa Nadal, suffered a surprise 6-1 3-6 6-3
defeat by 13th seed Juergen Melzer of Austria in the third round of the
Shanghai Masters on Thursday.

Nadal, who won the
Tokyo Open on Sunday and was playing in his third back-back tournament,
had never lost a set to Melzer in their three previous meetings. “This
isn’t a surprise for me. I didn’t play well. I felt slow on court and I
made more mistakes than usual,” the Spaniard told reporters. “In
general, I am a little bit more tired than usual, physically and
mentally. You can’t expect to win every week. All the good work is done
for me for the year.”

But world number
two Novak Djokovic hammered home his intent of winning back-to-back
titles with a 6-1 6-1 victory over France’s Richard Gasquet to reach
the last eight of the Shanghai Masters on Thursday. Britain’s Andy
Murray secured his place at the ATP season-ender in London next month
with a routine 6-3 6-4 win over another Frenchman, Jeremy Chardy,
following a recent dip in form. “I didn’t get broken today. I served a
lot into his forehand and varied the serve, which helped,” said Murray,
who lost in the quarter-finals of the China Open last week.

The fourth seed will next meet France’s Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, who
celebrated wildly after beating German Florian Mayer 7-5 6-3. Serb
Djokovic produced a scorching display against Gasquet that was likely
to be watched closely by the other top seeds including Rafa Nadal and
Roger Federer who play later. “I did really well from the start. I put
pressure on him. I was aggressive and I knew I had to be,” said the
U.S. Open runner-up who secured his 18th career title at the China Open
on Monday. Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez also advanced after beating
seventh seed Czech Tomas Berdych 7-6 6-3.

World
mountain running champion, Andrea Mayr, looks set to be the firm
favourite for the women’s event at upcoming Obudu International
Mountain Race judging by her form this season.

The Austrian-born
Mayr, who clocked 31 today, won the 2008 women’s race ahead of more
established runners, including Ethiopia’s Mestawet Tufa, setting in the
process a new course record of 51:14minutes. Mayr, who also competes in
marathon and cycling events, however failed to defend her title at last
year’s race after sustaining a fracture in a cycling accident in her
home town of Wels. In Mayr’s absence, Ethiopia’s Mamitu Daska won the
women’s race, shattering the course record with a run of 49:12 minutes.
But she has made known her intentions to reclaim the women’s title come
November 27 in Obudu, Cross River state after emerging winner of the
26th World Mountain Running Championship which came up last month in
Kanmik, Slovenia where she beat her nearest rival Italy’s Valentina
Belotti by over half a minute.

In addition to her
victory in Slovenia, Mayr added the World Mountain Running Association
(WMRA) Grand Prix title to her 2010 collections to further cement her
status as the world’s top female mountain runner with her most recent
success arriving at the start of October at the 31st Smarca Gora Race
in Ljubljana, the Slovenian capital. The Austrian, who has been
undefeated all through the season, led the field from the start to the
finish in Smarca and crossed the line in 48:48 minutes, about 2:31
minutes before second-place finisher, Antonella Confortola-Wyatt from
Italy (51:09). In the process, Mayr, who represented Austria in the
3000 metres steeplechase at both the 2005 and 2007 World Athletics
Championships, garnered 340 points to emerge the overall WMRA Grand
Prix winner for 2010 and showed once again why she is the overwhelming
favourite to reclaim the Obudu title.

Ready for Obudu

Mayr has already
confirmed her readiness to return for the sixth edition of the Obudu
International Mountain Race as she informed William Archibong, the
Chairman of the Local Organising Committee for the November 27 race, in
an e-mail, that the desire to make a big return for this year’s race
spurred her into giving a 100% performance in Kanmik and Ljubljana.

The Obudu
international mountain race is organized by the Cross River State
Government, in conjunction with the Athletic Federation of Nigeria
(AFN). It enjoys tremendous support from the African Athletics
Confederation (CAA), the WMRA, and the International Association of
Athletics Federations (IAAF). The race covers a distance of 11
kilometres uphill to an altitude of 1,575 metres above sea level and is
the richest mountain running event in the world.

The total prize money for this year’s edition has been increased
from $245,500 to $278,000 due to the addition of the African Nations
Championship for women. The prize money for the first to the 10th
position for this year’s race however remain the same with the winners
in each gender category going home with $50,000 each while $20,000 and
$9,000 respectively will go to the second and third placed finishers.
The prizes for 4th -10th placed finishers in each category also remains
at $4,500, $4,000, $3,000, $2,500, $2,000, $1,500 and $1,000
respectively.

In
a bid to promote the game of rugby at the grassroots, the Nigeria Rugby
Football Federation (NRFF) had an official launch of the iTry Rugby
Cluster Programme.

The Programme, an
initiative of the NRFF, in conjunction with Promasidor Nigeria, makers
of Cowbell Milk, is meant to create awareness of rugby among children.
According to Akin Akintola, the Chief Operating Officer of the NRFF,
“The iTry Rugby Cluster Programme is in essence an outreach programme
that wants to embrace schools. We want rugby to be part of the
secondary school curriculum. The need for sustainability and continuity
in rugby was what brought about the emergence of the programme.”

A continuous project

Children from about
30 schools turned up for the occasion, which took place on Wednesday at
the Tafawa Balewa Cricket Oval in Lagos. The children, picked from
Junior Secondary School One, were visibly excited to be there. They are
going to be the first set to be participating in the Cluster Programme.
According to Kayode Oguntayo, Vice President of NRFF: “The programme is
meant to be an ongoing thing. After this year, we would start with
another set of JSS 1 students until the all the classes now have teams.
This way we are assured that there would be a continuous stream of
students playing rugby.”

The children will
be trained to play Rugby 7’s, which is a formation of the game. In it
each of the teams would have seven players squaring up on each side.
According to Fola Odetoyinbo, NRFF Head of Youth Development, the
reason for this is that Rugby 7’s is less complicated and easier to
learn than other variants. “Come 2011, we hope to carry this to other
parts of the country but we would start from Kwara, then Kaduna and on
and on till we are able to have the programme in schools all over the
country,” he said.

Odetoyinbo also stated that to make the scheme a sustainable one, a
number of investments had been made. “Twelve coaches have been
accredited following completion of a comprehensive International Rugby
Board (IRB) training program,” he said. “Each coach will be given a
package including track suit, rugby shirts, training cones, balls,
pumps, stop watch and a laptop to enable them train the students at
their designated schools.” Also at the launch each of the schools were
given kits for the students, balls and pumps. The coaches have been
assigned to schools and training is expected to begin next week.

The
senior national team – the Super Eagles seems bent on turning out one
drab performance after another as they suffered a disappointing 1-0
loss to the Syli of Guinea.

For 90 minutes, the
Eagles did not look like they could have drawn the match much less win.
From the first strike of the match, which resulted in a goal for Guinea
in the fifth minute, and a bad miss by Michael Eneramo, there was
nothing exciting about the game.

Nigeria played
without Mikel Obi, Osaze Odemwingie and Dickson Etuhu but the team that
was fielded should have done the country justice but that was not to be.

The outcome was in
contrast with the promise by the team captain, Joseph Yobo, that the
worst the team will get in Conakry was a draw.

Before leaving for
Conaky, captain of the team, Joseph Yobo had said, “We are ready and I
believe any result for now will do so long as we don’t lose the match.”

He had also warned the Guineans to beware of the attack that featured Obafemi Martins and Michael Eneramo.

“The biggest plus
we have is our attack. If you look at the fire power we have upfront, I
wouldn’t want to play against them. We may be missing one or two of the
strikers, but the Eagles attack is always a handful.”

The much hyped
attack ended up being toothless. This became glaring in the 33rd minute
when Eneramo missed a sitter off Martins’ knock down. That was the only
clear chance created by the Eagles in open play.

Traditional lineup

Austin Eguavoen had
lined up a traditional 4-4-2 with Joseph Yobo, who partnered returning
Dele Adeleye with Chidi Odiah and Taye Taiwo in the right and left
full-back positions.

But things went awry as early as the fifth minute.

Nigeria tried to
control the midfield through debutant, Sunday Stephen and Yusuf Ayila,
but the slow pace of passing and moving plus the absence of any prior
game plan to keep the Guineans at bay was immediately dashed when the
combination of Fode Camara and Ismael Bangoura opened up the defence
and Bangoura scored to the left of Vincent Enyeama.

That turned out to be the only goal of a match that can be described as pedestrian at best.

Nigeria will have a
chance to return to the summit of Group 2 when they host Ethiopia on
March 26, 2011. And maybe at that point, the Eagles will have a
substantive coach in the saddle.

Guinea leads the standings with six points from two matches having beaten Ethiopia away in the first qualifying match.

Cameroon get own-goal reprieve

An own goal by
Congo’s Eric Nkulukuta saved the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon from a
home defeat on Saturday. The 1-1 draw was their debut match under new
coach, Javier Clemente, formerly of Spain.

West Ham defender
Herita Ilunga scored the opening goal in the 37th minute but Cameroon
got an equaliser in the 54th minute as Eric Nkulukuta’s attempted
clearance went into the net.

Papiss Demba Cisse and Mamadou Niang grabbed the headlines with
three and two goals respectively as Senegal mauled Mauritius 7-0 and
they lead Group E with six points with 11 goals scored.