Nigerian Football

Old Flames Come Alive at GTBank Masters Cup

Published

7 years ago

June 24, 2017

BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

Two former winners of the old Lagos Principals Cup, St, Finbarr’s College Akoka and Anwar-ul-Islam College Agege will attempt to rekindle old flames as both clash in the GTBank Masters Cup final on Thursday.

Both schools belong to the old strongholds of the Lagos Principals Cup which began in 1948. For the records, Sports Village Square recalls that both schools dominated the Lagos Principals Cup in the ancient era, but they never met in the finals.

St Finbarr’s won the old competition a record 10 times while Anwar-ul-Islam College won three times, but featured in final matches five times under its former name, Ahmadiyya College, Agege.

While St Finbarr’s College hold a record of most victories in the Principals Cup, Anwar-ul Islam also can lay claims in the record books. Sports Village Square notes that when the school won the then Zard Cup in 1957, it became the first victorious school outside the original seven that pioneered secondary schools football competition in Lagos in 1948.

Sports Village Square also recalls that both schools produced many great names in Nigerian football.

St Finbarr’s College had Stephen Keshi, Paul Okoku, Henry Nwosu among others while as Ahmadiyya College, Anwar-ul-Islam produced, perhaps the greatest school football sensation of the 1960s, Tunde Disu and also Tajudeen Olarenwaju who later became a general in the Nigerian Army.

But Thursday’s setting is under a different platform produced by GTBank. According to information offered Sports Village Square, the Masters Cup, which the bank previously called Heritage Cup, began in 2012 as a stand-alone league especially for the old strongholds of the Lagos Principals Cup.

In the women’s category of the competition, Ansar-ud-Deen Girls High School, Itire will face Queens College, Yaba. Both schools have dominated the competition in the past. Sports Village Square recalls that this year’s final match is a repeat of the keenly contested 2014 final match.

Score line at after regulation time was goalless before Queens College prevailed 4-3 on penalties. Queens College won the inaugural edition in 2012 while Ansar-ud-Deen Girls High School, Itire won that of 2013 defeating Methodist Girls High School, Yaba, which Queens had also defeated in the previous final match.

Sports Village Square also notes that both finalists this year had been alternating victories in the Masters Cup. Queens College won in 2012, 2014 and 2016 while Ansar-ud-Deen Girls High School, Itire won in 2013 and 2015. Will 2017 be a victory for Ansar-ud-Deen Girls High School, Itire? The answer will emerge when both clash at 2pm at the water front Onikan Stadium on Thursday.

Nigerian Football

NFF cuts Enyimba’ point haul by two

Published

1 day ago

April 30, 2024

Kunle Solaja

Two points have been chalked off from the 55 that Enyimba currently have after 32 match days.

This is sequel to the decision of the NFF disciplinary committee which upturned the victory that Enyimba had over Doma United in a March 10 game.

The match was disrupted after 88 minutes with the scoreline at 0-0. Then Enyimba scored a goal which was initially admitted, then the referee consulted with the Assistant Referee 1 who raised his flag for an offside positioning. The referee agreed that the goal was scored from an offside position.

The referee was faulted for using an unorthodox means of consulting an Outside Broadcasting Van outside the stadium main bowl to arrive at a decision.

The NFF has therefore ruled that the result of the match at the point of the restart of the game after over ruling the goal scored as offside is hereby upheld at (0-0).

Enyimba though still second, are tied on points with Remo Stars as both have the same points and goal difference. Remo Stars which secured a double over Enyimba in the on-going league.

Remo Stars also have a game at hand.

Nigerian Football

Finidi George begins race against time

Published

2 days ago

April 30, 2024

Kunle Solaja

Congo's Jules Tchimbakala (R) struggles for the ball with Nigeria's George Finidi during their match Nigeria vs DR Congo, 28 January 2000 in Lagos, in the African Cup of Nations 2000.(ELECTRONIC IMAGE) AFP PHOTO

BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

It is 34 days to the match that will possibly shape Finidi George’s career as the new helmsman on the saddle of Super Eagles’ technical crew.

The Nigeria- South Africa will shape the Super Eagles’ destiny in the qualifying series for the World Cup 2026. Dropping of points in the match will be injurious as the Super Eagles began the race last November in the fashion of coal-propelled locomotive and are now third on the log of a six-team field.

What will put the Super Eagles back into reckoning will be the amassing of the six-points available in the home game with South Africa and the away duel with Benin Republic.

Encounters with South Africa have always evoke deep rooted passion and tension. Will an overtly self-effacing Finidi George be able to soak the looming tension?

Details of his contract is not known and may never been known as it is against the norm in Nigeria for the monetary value of footballers and managers to be revealed.

Also not known are the other members of his technical crew, whether imposed or nominated by the new manager.

Will he be solely responsible to draw up the list for the twin match with South Africa and Benin Republic?

Will he keep on with his current role at Enyimba which is at the cusp of possible 10^th league title?

All these issues have to be straightened out today before we have another Paradise loss and have to be relegated to the spectators’ stands when the enlarged World Cup 2026 gets underway.

It is on record that Finidi George’s goal earned Nigeria their first berth at the World Cup. Will he repeat the deed by qualifying Nigeria to the World Cup as a manager?

Time and actions will tell.

Nigerian Football

Finidi George becomes Nigeria’s 41st national coach

Published

2 days ago

April 29, 2024

Kunle Solaja

Finidi George is the 41st boss on the saddle

BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

After two matches last March in which Nigeria Super Eagles won one and lost the other, the Nigeria Football Federation Finidi George has been judged as the right man for the vacant Super Eagles job.

He thus become the 41^st person to occupy the position since the adhoc engagement of John Finch, former Fulham winger in 1949. According to a press release by the NFF, the board of the federation on Monday approved the recommendation of its technical development committee to appoint Finidi George as Head Coach of the Super Eagles.

George who belong to the Nigeria Golden Generation of Super Eagles of 1994 spent 20 months as assistant to José Santos Peseiro.

In his baptism as an interim national coach, his squad edged Ghana 2-1, ending an 18-year winless streak against the Black Stars, but then lost 0-2 to Mali in the second game. The loss to Mali was the first time Nigeria had been beaten by Mali since 1972.

As a national team player, George is best known as the player whose goal qualified Nigeria for the World Cup for the first time ever.

It was a goal scored against Algeria on 8 October 1993 – incidentally it was the 44^th anniversary of Nigeria’s maiden international match played against Sierra Leone in 1949.

Finidi played 60 times for Nigeria and was Nigeria’s 40^th scoring debutant when he came as a substitute in a 7-1 defeat of Burkina Faso on 27 July 1991.

He is a winner with the Super Eagles at the 1994 Africa Cup of Nation and featured at the World Cup at the USA ‘94 and France ’98.

Incidentally, his major task now is to qualify Nigeria to another World Cup in the USA and two other nations. The match is 35 days away from this Monday.