Governing Bodies
Chinese community reward Edo 2020 Kung-Fu medallists
In fulfilment of the promise it made before the National Sports Festival in Benin, the Chinese Community in Nigeria last weekend rewarded all the medalists in the Kung Fu event.
They were entertained, offered motivational talks from Nigeria’s first Olympic gold medallist, Chioma Ajunwa and also given monetary incentives.
At a colorful ceremony held in Surulere area of Lagos and jointly organised by the Nigeria Huaxing Art Troupe and the Wushu Development Association of Nigeria, the Chairman of Chinese Industrial and Commercial Entrepreneur Association, Dr Eric Ni, said the reward to the athletes is the confirmation of good relationship that has been existing between China and Nigeria.
Although Kung Fu was a non-scoring event and made its debut at the national multi-sport event last March, the monetary reward to the six best performers at the Festival was a consolation to them considering the fact that their respective states did not reward them because of the present status of the sport.
Among the recipient of the special cash award were Oluremi Phillip Adedokun, Austin Esther Douye, Shittu Modinat, Iyanu Okiki Oladele, Eweje Yusuf Leye, Nwobilor Francis Tochukwu.
Gold medallist won N200,000 while silver medal winners were each given N150,000 just as the winners of bronze medal was rewarded with N100,000 each.
During the presentation ceremony, Dr. Ni, a holder of chieftancy title in Nigeria, explained that it is the wish of the Chinese Community to continue to reward Nigerian youths in talent development and groom them to be among the best in the world.
“We have been in Nigeria for almost 60 years and meaning we are together in nation’s building program for such a long time. We want to help build youths of the nation both in sports and cultural development.
“The Chinese community want to continue to build seamless relationship and because of this we want to expand and help in local football and boxing development and for your information, we have been part of your national public holiday in the past and will want to expend to other sports where Nigerians have great advantage and popularity among their peers.
“Nigeria is part of our system and the hope for the future lies in the children and in fulfilment of our promise we want to reward the athletes at the last sports festival.
“We are into community development through education and culture and recently we visited the Makoko community and we are into social development just like we visited orphanage homes and make meaningful donations,” he remarked.
Nigeria’s first Olympic gold medallist, Chioma Ajunwa who incidentally was a member of the Nigerian football team at the inaugural Women’s World Cup that took place in China in 1991, urged the youths to take the advantage giving to them by the Chinese Community to development themselves and achieve greater goals both in sports and education.
“Dr Hi is not a Nigerian but he has planted seeds among us and with the hope that it will geminate within a sporting time frame and help in the development of sports in Nigeria.
“It’s a good development if the youths of today can take the advantage of this unique platform to excel both in their academic calling and at the same time nurture themselves be among the best in their sport in the world,” she added.
Aside the monetary reward, the Chinese Community also donated sporting equipment to the Kung Fu Federation.
Governing Bodies
Nigeria becoming an epicentre of global badminton as Francis Orbih enters the Badminton World Federation Council
Laurels on the courts and now glory in the boardroom sums up the mark that badminton is making in Nigeria.
The President, Badminton Federation of Nigeria (BFN), Francis Orbih, has been elected as a council member of the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
The election took place during the BWF Annual General Meeting on Saturday in Xiamen, China.
Orbih emerged victorious over top contenders from other African countries.
He will join Cameroon’s Odette Assembe Engoulou on the council, while Chipo Zumburani (Zimbabwe) and Hadia ElSaid (Egypt) missed out.
An elated Orbih expressed his gratitude to fellow badminton presidents across the globe for their trust and support.
He said, “I am deeply honoured by the trust placed in me by my peers across the badminton world.
“I look forward to quality representation, driving development initiatives, and strengthening badminton’s global reach over the next four years.”
Orbih also acknowledged the support of the Federal Government of Nigeria, particularly the National Sports Commission (NSC), which he said played a significant role in his successful bid.
“The Chairman and the Director General of the NSC monitored the entire process. I’m grateful for their involvement and confident Nigeria will benefit from this,” he stated.
He further appreciated the BFN board members and the Nigerian badminton community for their prayers and continued belief in his leadership.
“From the day I declared my intentions, the board members of BFN have been supportive, and I promise not to disappoint them,” Orbih concluded.
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A former member of the FIFA Council, Mamoutou Toure, has been released from jail in Mali after almost two years in detention for alleged corruption, Malian media reports said on Wednesday.
Toure, president of the Malian Football Federation since 2019, was released after 622 days in prison on Tuesday.
He served on the FIFA Council, world football’s all-powerful decision-making body, for four years until last month when he lost his seat after failing to contest new elections.
The 67-year-old was arrested in August 2023 on allegations of embezzling $28 million of public funds but was granted a provisional release order by the Malian courts, reports said.
He was accused of misconduct during his time as the National Assembly’s financial and administrative director from 2013-2019.
Toure denied all charges and, during his time in jail, was last August re-elected as Malian Football Federation president for a second consecutive term, with his supporters claiming he was a victim of a conspiracy fuelled by detractors.
While in jail, he received a letter of support from FIFA president Gianni Infantino. However, as of last month, Toure is no longer a member of the FIFA Council or the Confederation of African Football’s executive committee.
-Reuters
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The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has denied reports of an outstanding debt to former captain Christian Chukwu and has challenged anyone with verifiable documents to prove otherwise.
Chukwu, a former national team captain and chief coach, died last Saturday.
The Nigeria Football Federation decried statements in a section of social media that the football-ruling body was indebted to the deceased.
Reacting to one statement on social media that claimed NFF owed the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations-winning team captain the sum of $128,000, NFF General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, said: “There is no record in the NFF of any outstanding indebtedness to ‘Chairman’ Christian Chukwu.
“During the first term of the Board headed by Amaju Pinnick, a committee was set up to diligently peruse the papers of coaches who were being owed, even from previous NFF administrations.
“That committee was given the clear mandate to verify all debts and ensure that the coaches being owed were paid immediately. I am aware that the ‘Chairman’ was in the employ of the NFF between 2002 and 2005, before he was relieved of the post following the 1-1 draw with Angola in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match in Kano in August 2005. There is certainly no record of indebtedness to him in the NFF.”
Sanusi challenged anyone with genuine and verifiable documents of NFF indebtedness to any coach, who has worked with any of the National Teams over the past two decades, to come forward and tender those documents.
“As a credible organization that is very much alive to its responsibilities, if we are confronted with any genuine document of indebtedness to any coach, we will offset the debt immediately.”
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Nigeria becoming an epicentre of global badminton as Francis Orbih enters the Badminton World Federation Council
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