Nigerian Football
Hammer Falls on Chukwu, Nigeria’s Former Skipper and Coach
The League Management Company, which organizes the Nigerian elite professional football league on Friday, announced the suspension of the General Manager of Enugu Rangers, Christian Chukwu.
The suspended football official was the captain of the Nigerian team in the 1970s till March 1980 when the team won the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time. He was also a former coach of the Nigerian and Kenyan national teams.
The organizers of the Nigerian league announced through their official twitter handle that Christian Chukwu had been suspended from all its activities with immediate effect.
It added that the suspension will hold pending Chukwu’s appearance before the Ethics Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF.
The LMC added that the referral was in pursuant to the provisions of Rule C17.5 of the NPFL (Nigeria Professional Football League) Framework and Rules.
The LMC had referred to the NFF Ethics Committee the matter of Chukwu’s conduct in the dispute resolution proceedings between Enugu Rangers and their former coach, Imama Amapakabo who was sacked following the club’s elimination by Egypt’s Zamalek SC from the 2017 CAF Champions League.
Earlier, Rangers and the club secretary, Joseph Onwukwe had been charged with infractions of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) Rules and Framework in the course of mediation proceedings in the dispute between the club and its former coach, Imama Amapakabo.
The LMC subsequently levied sanctions on the club and the official with Rangers fined N5million ($5,000) and Onwukwe banned from all NPFL activities for a period of one year.
The LMC also directed Rangers to pay the sacked coach various sums including N14, 560,000 representing his salaries for April to October 2017 and compensation for wrongful termination, N1, 600,000 representing his salary for November and December 2016, N600, 000 which represents arrears of allowances and bonuses and $725 which is international travel allowance owed Amapakabo.
Onwukwe was charged for breaches of Appendix E1.5, Appendix E1.4 (Code of Conduct for Club Officials), C28 and C1 of the Framework and Rules.
The first charge read, “you are in breach of Appendix E1.5 (Code of Conduct for Club Officials of the NPFL Framework and Rules in that on Wednesday, 19th July, 2017, in your capacity as an official and representative of Rangers International Football Club in the course of dispute resolution proceedings involving Coach Imama Amapakabo and Rangers International Football Club, you issued threats, including: “that the coach is an individual whereas the Club is an apparatus of the government and that he must stop giving the Club problems”; thereby failing to show due respect to others involved in the game.
Onwukwe was also charged for breach of Appendix E1.4 (Code of Conduct for Club Officials) of the Framework and Rules, “in that on or about Wednesday, 19th July, 2017, in your capacity as an official and representative of Rangers International Football Club in the course of dispute resolution proceedings involving Coach Imama Amapakabo and Rangers International Football Club, your words and conduct, including the issuance of threats, switching off your mobile phone in a bid to refuse to disclose and to evade requested information, constitute attempts to game the system”.
The Rangers official was further charged for refusal to assist in the mediation proceedings when requested to do so, thereby violating Rule C28.
On the fourth count, Onwukwe was charged for issuing threats, failure to provide assistance in the course of inquiry, failure to behave with the utmost good faith, failure to act in the best interest of the game, failure to comply with the directives, requirement, rules and or regulations governing the League and acting in a manner capable of bringing the game into disrepute, which constitutes misconduct contrary to Rule C1.
Rangers International FC was charged for inappropriate handling of official correspondence with the LMC as well as failing to act with utmost good faith in the claim over a vehicle which formed part of the matter in the dispute contrary to Rule 5.5.1.
The Nigeria U17 women’s team has been given incentives to make it to the Women’s World Cup for the eighth time.
The team, Flamingos, who arrived in Algiers in the early hours of Wednesday aboard a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul, are highly inspired by the imminence of another FIFA World Cup ticket as well as further financial windfall from the Nigeria Football Federation and billionaire business mogul Kunle Soname.
Soname gifted the young players and their officials the sum of N4 million (one million naira for every goal) following their commanding win over the North Africans at the Remo Stars Stadium on Saturday, while the NFF gave out the sum of N2 million (five hundred thousand naira for every goal).
President of NFF, Ibrahim Musa Gusau and Soname have both confirmed that the same financial incentives are in place for the second leg in Blida on Friday.
“Our objective is clear – to win the FIFA World Cup ticket. That is the big motivation.
“Yet, we have been further incentivised by the monetary rewards. My girls will go all out on Friday night,” Head Coach Bankole Olowookere said.
Olowookere, who led the Flamingos to their last two World Cup ventures, will most likely rely on first-leg two-goal heroine Queen Joseph, lone-goal scorer Zainab Raji and Kaosarat Olanrewaju to start at the fore, with Shakirat Moshood, Muinat Rotimi and Philomena Isaiah supplying the passes from the midfield.
Goalkeeper and captain Christiana Uzoma and defenders Azeezat Oduntan, Hannah Ibrahim, Christiana Sunday and Jumai Adebayo are also likely to start.
The Confederation of African Football has selected Cameroonian official Marie Noelle Etong to be the referee, with her compatriots Marcelle Teikeu and Innocentia Ntangti as assistant referee 1 and fourth official, respectively, while Chadian Ngarassoum Victorine will be assistant referee 2.
Oumou Souleymane Kane from Mauritania will be the commissioner, and Sabelo Maphosa-Sibindi from Zimbabwe will be in the role of referee assessor.
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Former president of the initially 15-member West African Football Union (WAFU), Chief Jonathan Boytie Ogufere, has expressed his heartfelt condolences over the recent death of former national team captain and coach, Christian ‘Chairman’ Chukwu.
He remarked that the erstwhile Enugu Rangers’ defence stalwart will ‘be dearly missed’. In a personally signed letter of condolence, Ogufere described Chukwu, who died on Saturday, April 12, in Enugu after a brief illness at 74, as a ‘hero of our time and a friend’.
The nonagenarian recalled with nostalgia how he nearly recruited the young Chukwu for his P & T Vasco da Gama Football Club of Enugu, adding he was impressed with how the ‘Field Marshal Christian Chukwuemeka ‘Chairman ‘ Chukwu (MFR), conducted himself throughout his career as he led both the national team, the then Green Eagles and his beloved Enugu Rangers to many conquests.
“I join numerous others to mourn the transition of the legendary Christian Chukwu, a hero of our time and friend,” the Ugbugba of Okpe Kingdom wrote.
“As one of the young academicals discovered after the end of the Civil War in 1970, I tried to enlist into my club, the P & T Vasco da Gama Football Club of Enugu but he was fair and frank in informing me that he had already joined Enugu Ranges Football Club, and I respected that attitude. From the rivalries between the two clubs, his exploits as a central defender were very visible.”
He continued: “Christian Chukwu emerged at the national level as a trustworthy and formidable captain of the national team who led by example.
“He was one of the heroes during the Golden age of Nigerian football when I was one of the Board Members of the Nigeria Football Association under the chairmanship of Chief Sunday Dankaro as Nigeria won the Africa Cup of Nations in 1980 for the first time where Christian Chukwu as captain of the Green Eagles was declared the best player of the tournament. He led the national team in several battles, which endeared him to millions of football lovers.
“After his playing days, he showed his talents through coaching in Nigeria and abroad.
“I express my sincere condolences to the family he left behind, the football family and the country in general. He will be dearly missed.
“May the good Lord grant his noble soul eternal rest,” he noted.
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Remo Stars are coasting to what will be their greatest moment ever, a win of the Nigeria Premier Football League title, as they recorded a 1-0 win over Shooting Stars in Ibadan in a match played behind closed doors.
In doing so, they achieved their sixth double of the season, having earlier beaten Shooting Stars in the first stanza of the league.
They maintained the seven-point lead over second-placed Rivers United, who also beat Sunshine Stars 1-0 in Port Harcourt.
After a ding-dong affair, Alex Oyowah scored the vital goal for Remo Stars from a right-wing cross from Ismail Sodiq.
In another match, Ikorodu City continued to work tenaciously to obtain a continental ticket as they held El Kanemi to a 1-1 draw.
SUNDAY RESULTS
- El Kanemi 1-1 Ikorodu City
- Niger Tornados 1-1 Bayelsa United
- Heartland 0-0 Kwara United
- Plateau United 1-0 Akwa United
- Rivers United 1-0 Sunshine Stars
- Shooting Stars 0-1 Remo Stars
- Bendel United 1-1 Nasarawa United
SATURDAY
- Katsina United 0-0 Abia Warriors
- Enyimba 2-1 Kano Pillars
- Lobi Stars 2-4 Enugu Rangers
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