Nigerian Football

NFF INAUGURATES 24-MEMBER REFORM COMMITTEE

Published

5 years ago

December 6, 2018

BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick on Thursday inaugurated a 24-member NFF Reform Committee in Lagos. The NFF Executive Committee proposed the committee to the General Assembly last month in Asaba.

Headed by the NFF 1^st Vice President, Seyi Akinwunmi, the committee, among others, is expected to provide the most stable and sustainable foundations for football in Nigeria.

Virtually all members of the committee drawn from virtually every segment of the football community attended the brief, but incisive inauguration session.

In inaugurating the committee, Pinnick remarked that he had absolute confidence in the committee coming up with progressive reforms.

He also said that the recommendations of the committee, which has a three-month time frame, would be implemented.

This will be a sharp departure from the past when similar committees’ reports were condemned to gather dust in shelves.

Before now, there had been many reform committees such as the SO Williams Sports Reforms committee in the 1980s, the Amanze Uchegbulam committee on age-graded football activities of 1999, the Emeka Omeruah Committee of 2004 and another one some years back which recommended the formation of a domestic Court of Arbitration for Sports to avoid the administrative and legal logjams that almost strangulate football administration in the past four year.

The immediate past sports minister, Tammy Danagogo had four years ago called for a Nigerian Court of Arbitration for Sports as being necessary to settle the recurring disputes and civil court cases in the football industry that have put the Nigeria at loggerheads with FIFA.

“We don’t have a Court of Arbitration for Sport in this country and we need one,” he said.

“I was told the modalities for setting up one is in place, but I will have to fast-track its establishment, and I will work with the National Olympic Commission because its establishment is under their purview.” However, that never happened.

Danagogo at the time explained that the purpose of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) was to bring about the resolution of sports-related disputes, which are submitted to it through ordinary arbitration or through appeal against the decisions of sports bodies or organisations.

“The first president of the CAS, Juan Antonio Samaranch, envisaged a ‘kind of Hague Court in the sports world,’” he added.

“With this court in place, any aggrieved party can take their case there. So, a situation whereby the NFF will be the prosecutor, defendant, and judge on any matter will longer happen.”

Perhaps it was owing to those facts that the chairman of the latest reforms committee, Seyi Akinwunmi, a lawyer, said in his opening remarks that there is nothing new in the setting up of the committee.

But what is necessary is for Nigerians to believe that a new era has come. “Change can come anytime, but we have to believe in it.”

The session began with a short video clip on changes in some African countries and the zeal to believe that this can also permeate into Nigerian football for the better.

The committee has set up a web page, which members of the public can make input into by first registering and get activated to contribute to the discourse.

Pinnick in resolving to get the findings of the committee to be implemented asked the members to put timeline into every recommendation made.

Nigerian Football

Former Nigeria international, Onye recommends Amuneke-Siasia combo for Super Eagles

Published

1 day ago

April 22, 2024

Kunle Solaja

BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

Kingsley Onye, the left sided defender who was a member of the first Flying Eagles side to have a podium finish at the U-20 World Cup has suggested the employment of Emmanuel Amuneke as the coach of the Super Eagles.

He wants him to be assisted by Samson Siasia when the ban on the latter lapses in August. Alternatively, Onye pointed to Sylvanus Okpala as alternative to Siasia.

The Super Eagles are in dare need for a head coach as the clock ticks down to the Match day 4 and 5 of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in which the team is trailing at the third position.

The two matches in early June are crucial for the Super Eagles to bounce back into reckoning as the team can not afford to drop any of the available six points in the duels with South Africa at home and away to Benin.

From this Monday, it is 41 days to the potentially challenging tie with South Africa, but the Nigerian national team has been without a coach since the expiration of the contract of Portugal’s Jose Peseiro shortly after the Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire.

Without mincing words, Onye remarked: “Emmanuel Amuneke is the right man for the job of the coach of Super Eagles. He has been there before.

“He tasted it and had been fantastic with the Nigeria youth team, the U-17 by assisting Manu Garba to win the U17 World Cup in 2013 and as head coach, led the Golden Eaglets to win the cup again in 2015.”

Onye who played for the Enugu Rangers in Nigeria before venturing to the UK but had his career scuppered by freak injury pointed out that the solution to Super Eagles’ technical deficiency is the appointment of an indigenous coach and that Amuneke is the man.

In buttressing his assertion, he declared: “As a senior team coach, Amuneke qualified a long standing absentee team, Tanzania for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.

“His record as a player is also very impressive. He played and won with the Super Eagles, the AFCON 1994. He played at the Olympic Games and was also the first Nigerian to score two goals at the World Cup.

“He has played at the African Games and also for top clubs in the continent as he was a member of the Egyptian giants, Zamalek. In Europe, he played for Sporting Clube de Portugal and then Barcelona before injury ended his playing career.”

Onye also looked at the personality of Amuneke in recommending him for the Super Eagles job.

His record as a player is also very impressive. He played and won with the Super Eagles, the AFCON 1994. He played at the Olympic Games and was also the first Nigerian to score two goals at the World Cup.

He has played at the African Games and also for top clubs in the continent as he was a member of the Egyptian giants, Zamalek. In Europe, he played for Sporting Clube de Portugal and then Barcelona before injury ended his playing career.

Nigerian Football

GTI enlarges coast…spreads from League fund-raising to Federation Cup

Published

4 days ago

April 19, 2024

Kunle Solaja

BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

Strategic partners of the Nigeria Football Federation, GTI Asset Management and Trust Ltd has expanded their scope of operations from fund sourcing for the Nigeria Premier League to adding the responsibility of getting the national cup competition back into its glamorous days.

The MD of the company, Abubakar Lawal at the unveiling a revamped Federation Cup which has been renamed President Federation Cup remarked that his company decided to take a bold step to support the national cup.

“I am the happiest man today, he said in the opening remark of the rebranding of the national cup through signing of Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Sports and the NFF.

“Our company is also strategically involved in ensuring that the President Federation Cup is given necessary attention to thrive using The Nigeria Football Fund (TNFF) as our vehicle to actualise this dream.

“Therefore, it is our vision that the oldest domestic football event becomes one of the best organised football events in the world in no distant future.”

Nigerian Football

Ikenne’s Beyond Limit Football Academy top goal chart as NNL releases vital statistics

Published

5 days ago

April 18, 2024

Kunle Solaja

The secretariat of the Nigeria National League has released the match statistics of the four conferences of the 2024 season.

With 198 matches so far played in Conferences A and B, 426 goals were scored, with 125 home wins and 26 away wins, representing 63.1%, & 26% respectively. There were 47 draw matches, representing 23.7% of matches. 299 home goals were scored, and 127 home goals.

Beyond Limit FC scored the highest goals of 33 goals, with Stormers FC and Ekiti United conceeding the least goals of 28 goals. Tradesafe and Solution FC scored the least numbers of goals of 11 goals and Osun conceded the least numbers of goals of 8.

In group C & D, 209 goals have been scored in the 106 so far played, with 70 home wins and 14 won away representing 66. 3% and 13.1% respectively.

Teams drew 31 matches representing 29.2% of the matches played. Wikki Tourists scored the highest numbers of goals, with 23 goals, while EFCC FC conceded the least numbers of goals. They conceded 18 goals. Nasarawa United’s 8 goals conceded made them the team that conceded the lowest numbers of goals, while ABS scored the least number of goals of 5 goals.