International Football
On Zik’s anniversary, Nigeria’s Super Eagles seek World Cup playoff slot
BY KUNLE SOLAJA
On a day that Nigeria is seeking a major soccer glory to move into World Cup qualification playoff, it is coincidentally a twin anniversary of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the country’s first president and easily the most sports-inclined.
It is 117 years today that Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, popularly known as Zik, began the long adventurous journey. It is also the silver jubilee of his interment on 16 November 1996.
Perhaps it was to his eternal honour that the Nigerian Super Eagles first played on the sacred turf of the old Wembley Stadium on Zik’s anniversary in 1994 and also qualified for the Brazil 2014 on a 16 November date in 2013.
For the former Nigerian president it was a life well lived, a thrilling sporting life.
Perhaps no other Nigerian of his profile adequately combined statesmanship with sportsmanship.
In political area, Zik was noted for compromise. Perhaps also, it had to do with his sporting background.
Sports is about winning some and losing some – a compromise of sort.
More than any other well known Nigerians, Zik was involved in all facets of sports. He was a player in many disciplines – athletics, boxing, tennis and football.
He was an umpire in boxing, athletics and a football referee.
Of course he was a supporter, cheering from the stands in athletics and football and also by boxing ringsides.
As a sports organizer he owned the famed Zik Athletics Club (ZAC) which incorporated many sports disciplines – an envious dream of today’s so called club professional sports clubs.
Archival materials speak volumes of the exploits of the club which was also the first privately owned and also one to own its arena. The club also had branches outside Lagos.
The ZAC Ibadan, contrary to statistics dished out yearly on Challenge Cup finals (now Aiteo Cup), was the first one-man club and first team outside Lagos to play in the finals of the then Governor’s Cup, losing 0-2 to Marine on 6, October 1947.
The ZAC Lagos later transformed to the ACB football club which folded up in 1994.
Endowed with creativity, Zik introduced the word ‘stadium’ into Nigeria’s sports lexicon when he named his football ground, ‘The Yaba Stadium’.
Before then, football arenas were simply called grounds, hence ‘The Association Ground’ which had been variously named as King George V Stadium, Lagos City Stadium, Onikan Stadium and now called Mobolaji Johnson Arena, Onikan.
As statesman, his speeches were sometimes laced with sporting ‘lingo’. While stating his desire to play fairly in the general election, he remarked: “I will not score an offside goal…
“I have been taught by my athletics coach not to beat the gun; by my boxing coach not to hit below the belt…”
Of significance was his address to the nation on January 1, 1964. The broadcast was essentially on Nigeria’s dwindling sporting stature.
Since then, no other head of state or president of Nigeria has ever made sports the theme of a nationwide broadcast.
He dismissed the famous cliché’ of Baron Pierre de Coubertin that honour in the Olympics was in taking part and not winning.
Hear Zik: “Gentility in sports was a by-product of the Victorian era with its aristocratic tradition.
“The concept of not playing to win but having the honour to participate formed the basis of British ethics of sportsmanship”.
He went on to say that the idea spread to everywhere the Union Jack had been hoisted.
Everyone now shares Zik’s view hence the saying of the Olympics: “Winning is not everything, but it is the thing”
International Football
Former Brazil coach Tite taking break to take care of mental, physical health
Former Brazil coach Tite said he is taking an indefinite career break in order to take care of his mental and physical health.
The 63-year-old, who led Brazil to the 2019 Copa America title, was hospitalised due to a heart issue last August. He was sacked by Flamengo the following month and had most recently been linked with the Corinthians job.
“I realised that there are times when you have to understand that, as a human being, I can be vulnerable and admitting that will certainly make me stronger,” Tite said in a statement posted on his son Matheus Bachi’s Instagram on Tuesday.
“I’m passionate about what I do and I’ll continue to be so, but after talking to my family and observing the signals my body was giving off, I decided that the best thing to do now is to take a break from my career to look after myself for as long as it takes.
“As has become public, there was a conversation in progress with Corinthians, but it will have to be paralysed by a difficult but necessary decision.”
Tite, who stepped down as Brazil coach after their quarter-final exit from the 2022 World Cup, has previously coached a string of Brazilian sides including Gremio, Atletico Mineiro and Palmeiras.
-Reuters
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Brazil have sacked head coach Dorival Jr, the country’s football confederation (CBF) said on Friday after the five-time world champions were thrashed 4-1 away to fierce rivals Argentina in a humiliating qualifying loss in Buenos Aires.
The 62-year-old was appointed in January 2024 after the team spent a year under two caretaker coaches as the Brazilian FA were unable to lure Italian Carlo Ancelotti from Real Madrid.
“The Brazilian Football Confederation informs that coach Dorival Jr is no longer in charge of the Brazilian national team,” the confederation said in a statement.
“The management thanks (Dorival) and wishes him success in continuing his career … the CBF will work to find his replacement,” it added.
Dorival was handed the job after his success with Flamengo in 2022 where he won the Copa Libertadores and Brazilian Cup, a trophy he lifted again the next year with Sao Paulo.
However, he never seemed to get to grips with the national team job and failed to earn the trust of Brazil’s demanding fans after winning only seven of his 16 games in charge.
Sources told Reuters the CBF was not confident in Dorival’s work, considering there had been little to no progress since a lacklustre Copa America campaign when Brazil were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Uruguay last year.
Still, the CBF was willing to wait and see until the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador and Paraguay in June to reassess the situation following the end of the European season and the Club World Cup in the U.S. in June and July.
But after Brazil slumped to their heaviest-ever loss in a qualifier when they were thrashed by Argentina this week, CBF president Ednaldo Rodrigues decided to pull the trigger.
IDEAL CANDIDATE
Sources told Reuters Ancelotti was still the ideal candidate but he is under contract with Real until July 2026 and there is no indication he would leave the European and Spanish champions.
Brazilian media have reported that Al Hilal’s Portuguese coach Jorge Jesus is the favourite to replace Dorival.
Brazil have been in unfamiliar territory for over two years since crashing out of the 2022 World Cup against Croatia on penalties in the quarter-finals, a heartbreaking elimination that led to the exit of long-time manager Tite.
Their humbling defeat in Buenos Aires was the latest of a series of negative records Brazil have set under caretakers Ramon Menezes and Fernando Diniz and with Dorival in charge. They had never conceded four goals in a World Cup qualifier.
Brazil are in the midst of their worst-ever World Cup qualifying campaign. They are fourth in the South American standings with 21 points, a point above sixth-placed Colombia who currently occupy the final direct qualifying berth.
Never have Brazil lost so many games, conceded so many goals or set so many negative records in the qualifying competition. They have lost five of their 14 games and conceded 16 goals.
Brazil’s 1-0 defeat by Argentina in the Maracana late in 2023 was their first-ever qualifying loss on home soil.
They also lost to Colombia for the first time, saw the end of their unbeaten run against Uruguay stretching back over two decades and were defeated by Morocco and Senegal, having never previously lost to an African nation.
-Reuters
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International Football
England’s German manager Tuchel will not sing the English anthem in his first game
England manager Thomas Tuchel said he would have to “earn the right” to sing the national anthem, God Save the King, after announcing his 26-man squad on Friday ahead of the team’s World Cup qualifiers.
Tuchel, who was appointed as Gareth Southgate’s successor in October and named his first squad to face Albania and Latvia this month, said he would not sing the anthem in his first games in charge.
“It means a lot to me, I can assure you, but I can feel that because it is so meaningful and it is so emotional and it is so powerful, the national anthem, that I have to earn my right to sing it,” the 51-year-old German told a news conference.
Former caretaker manager Lee Carsley was criticised last year for not singing the anthem during his tenure.
However, Tuchel added that while he is proud to be in charge of the team and knows the words to the anthem, he plans to earn the right with results.
“Maybe I have to dive more into the culture and earn my right from you, from the players, from the supporters, so everyone feels like ‘he should sing it now, he’s one of our own, he’s the English manager, he should sing it’,” he said.
-Reuters
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