International Football
My encounter with Grandmaster, Fabio Lanipekun
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
Within a space of eight days, I lost my two mentors in sports journalism. First it was Sunny Ojeagbase who died penultimate Saturday in the US. Then this last Sunday, Fabio Lanipekun took his last breath.
Both were the two parishioners who shaped me in thought and in practice.
At first, it was like re-enacting the popular photo magazine – Sadness and Joy – of my youthful days. Last Monday I got the sad news of the death of Ojeagbase but two days later, it was the joy that my other iconic mentor, Fabio Lanipekun was going to clock the milestone of 80.
Now, both are gone. I had followed Fabio for years even before I had personal contact with him. He was then a sports presenter at the WNTV in Ibadan.
At the time, he was presenting Star Soccer, a package of English football, Sports Round up and Sports Galore on Saturday.
With his afro hairstyle and smiles on his face, he would always sign off the programme with the phrase: “Am backing sports all the way, what about you?” That was in the early 1970s. I developed a magnetic interest in him as I watched his presentations.
I did not get to meet him in person until the summer of 1986 when we met in St. Johns, New Found land in Canada when we both covered the second edition of the FIFA under 16 Tournament.
He was there with Charles Ojugbana, while I represented the African Concord magazine. I had a first hand knowledge of my childhood hero.
He was humane and hardworking. He had the nose for details. He thought me not to always adapt the often bias of the western press in sports coverage. It was like going back to the classroom.
We were again together at the Italia ‘90 World Cup, the first of the now eight coverage of the most coveted football trophy on Planet Earth. Of course, I drank satisfactorily from his well of wisdom.
Almost like a guarding angel, he was with me at the Barcelona ‘92 Olympics, my first coverage of what is popularly believed to be the ‘Greatest Show on Earth.’
Even though I never worked under him, I am qualified to be called a student of Fabio Lanipekun. It was not therefore a surprise that when I became the Group Sports Editor of Concord Press of Nigeria in August 1989, he would always admonish me when he spotted errors in my pages.
Of course, I got accolades too, when he felt impressed of any write-up especially if it was a product of either historical recall or research.
It was in the course of such research that I once asked him how he came about the name Fabio, which I knew was Italian and that Nigeria had no link with Italy to make us adopt their names.
He told me that the name was actually a nickname that stuck. His real name was Adesola Lanipekun.
According to him, while at Methodist Boys High School in Lagos, he read an 1886 romance book titled “Vendetta”. It was a story of a forgotten fellow, Fabio Romani, an Italian count who was thought to be dead. The novel was written by Mary Corelli.
Lanipekun said he was fascinated by the central figure of the novel, Fabio Romani. “I enjoyed the book that I started calling myself ‘Fabio”.
That was the origin of the nickname that has over seven decades become his name. He remarked that his parents initially objected to it each time school friends came to ask after ‘Fabio’. But somehow, it has stuck.
He began his journalism career in 1962 at the now defunct Daily Express in Lagos before travelling abroad in 1964 to study Sports Journalism at the Regent Street Polytechnic in London.
He is one of the earliest Nigerian media practitioners to train specifically in sports journalism. He joined the Western Nigeria Television (WNTV) on February 17, 1969. On May 18, 1969 he had his first coverage of a football match for the WNTV when he ran commentaries of the Ghana versus Nigeria World Cup qualifying match in Accra.
According to him, sports were placed under the programmes department at the WNTV which is today’s NTA Ibadan.
The department was geared towards entertainment and featured sports at irregular intervals and mostly on weekly basis.
Among the three sports programmes was “Star Soccer”. The two others were “Wrestling from Britain” and “Sports Review”.
But a survey conducted among viewers in Lagos and the then Western State (now Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti states) places sports as fourth among the 20 programmes analysed.
According to Lanipekun, that enabled the creation of another slot to sports which increased his contributions to the station.
He rose to the position of Manager, Sports at the NTA before retiring in 1994. May his soul rest in peace.
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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