Nigerian Football
WAFU Rolls Back to Life as Nigeria, Ghana Renew Rivalry
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
The WAFU Nations Cup which was scuttled by the immediate past CAF regime of Issa Hayatou has now been resuscitated. This follows a draw ceremony on Thursday at Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra, Ghana. Nigeria, Ghana, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Mauritania and Guinea Bissau are drawn in Group A of the competition which final competition will hold in Ghana from September 9 to 24 this year. Group A teams will play in Takoradi.
In Group B are Senegal, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Niger Republic, Togo, Benin Republic Cote d’Ivoire and Cape Verde.
The Group B teams will play in Cape Coast. Like in the previous edition, the teams will feature only players in their domestic competitions.
The revived competition adopted a unique format that will see teams play single games before proceeding to the quarter finals. Nigeria will face Sierra Leone.
The competition suffered a premature death when on May 16, 2011 the Executive Committee of CAF in Cairo split the largest sub-regional football body in Africa into two thus administering a deadly pill on WAFU Cup that had been running for some time.
Contrary to wide held belief that the sub regional body was founded in 1975, the body has it origin in March 1959 when it came into existence as West Africa Football Federation (WAFF).
At the time, football associations from 16 West African countries, including Cameroon met in Accra for the football conference that led to the formation of WAFF and a competition for the Kwame Nkrumah Gold Cup which replaced the annual Jalco Cup competed by Nigeria and Ghana.
Reginald Banham Allen popularly called Derby Allen along with Effiom Okon represented Nigeria at the inauguration of WAFF, the fore-runner of WAFU.
The body adopted zonal groupings which pitched Nigeria with Cameroon, Dahomey (now Benin Republic) and Togo.
Nigeria’s Effiom Okon unsuccessfully proposed that zonal groupings be replaced with ballot system to avoid monotony of the same teams meeting every time.
The British president of Nigeria Football Association, Reginald Allen was elected as one of the two vice presidents of WAFF. About six years later, WAFF collapsed and was re-established as WAFU on September 7, 1975 in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
But 36 years later, life was snuffed out of the largest sub regional body in Africa.
THE DRAW
GROUP A
Ghana Vs The Gambia
Nigeria Vs Sierra Leone
Mali Vs Mauritania
Guinea Vs Guinea Bissau
GROUP B
Senegal Vs Liberia
Burkina Faso Vs Niger Republic
Cote d’Ivoire Vs Togo
Benin Republic Vs Cape Verde
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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