Nigerian Football
Club with highest number of Super Eagles becomes first Premier League side to sack coach this season
Watford, which parades six Nigerian players, has become the first English Premier League club to sack its manager.
Among the Nigerian players in Watford are Oghenekaro Etebo, William Ekong, Emmanuel Dennis and former junior internationals Isaac Success and Tom Dele-Bashir
The manager, Xisco Munoz was on Sunday sacked after just 10 months in charge following Saturday’s defeat to Leeds United.
The newly-promoted side are currently sat 14th in the table after recording two wins from their opening seven games.
But the club’s hierarchy have moved to remove Munoz from his post less than 24 hours after the 1-0 defeat to Leeds.
A club statement read: “Watford FC confirms Xisco Muñoz has left his post as the club’s Head Coach.
“The Board feels recent performances strongly indicate a negative trend at a time when team cohesion should be visibly improving.
“The Hornets will always be grateful to Xisco for the part he played in securing last season’s promotion and wish him well for his future career in football.
“No further club comment will be available until the imminent announcement of a new Head Coach.”Munoz only led Watford back to the Premier League via automatic promotion back in May and his team started the campaign superbly with a 3-2 win over Aston Villa.
However, three successive league defeats followed, to Brighton, Tottenham and Wolves respectively, with their only other victory coming against rock bottom Norwich City.
They did manage to earn a point at home to Newcastle, but the loss to Leeds – who were yet to record a top-flight victory this season – was seemingly the final straw.
Watford were also dumped out of the Carabao Cup last month to Championship side Stoke, having beaten Crystal Palace to progress to the third round.
Munoz becomes the latest short-term casualty by the club, who have developed a reputation for sacking their managers harshly and abruptly.
He was only appointed in December 2020 as a replacement for Vladimir Ivic and became Watford’s seventh manager in only three-and-a-half years.
Watford were somewhat unfortunate to be on the losing side against Leeds after having a goal controversially ruled out by the VAR.
But goalkeeper Ben Foster feels a draw would only have been hiding the shortcomings of their otherwise dismal performance.
“I thought if we would have [equalised] it would have been papering over the cracks,” said Foster. “We were very poor today. We didn’t have a shot on target, so can’t expect to come away with anything.
“They were very sharp and worked their socks off but if you allow them to do that it’s going to be a long day. If that goal had been given it would have been very unjust to the overall picture.
“I think we’re a better team than what we are showing. We were very poor today – miles away from it. We haven’t had a shot on target and didn’t lay a glove on them.”
The international break now gives the club time to find and appoint a successor, with Watford’s next fixture against Liverpool on October 16.
But it seems they have already got someone lined up, after stating there would be an “imminent” announcement.
The Nigeria U17 women’s team has been given incentives to make it to the Women’s World Cup for the eighth time.
The team, Flamingos, who arrived in Algiers in the early hours of Wednesday aboard a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul, are highly inspired by the imminence of another FIFA World Cup ticket as well as further financial windfall from the Nigeria Football Federation and billionaire business mogul Kunle Soname.
Soname gifted the young players and their officials the sum of N4 million (one million naira for every goal) following their commanding win over the North Africans at the Remo Stars Stadium on Saturday, while the NFF gave out the sum of N2 million (five hundred thousand naira for every goal).
President of NFF, Ibrahim Musa Gusau and Soname have both confirmed that the same financial incentives are in place for the second leg in Blida on Friday.
“Our objective is clear – to win the FIFA World Cup ticket. That is the big motivation.
“Yet, we have been further incentivised by the monetary rewards. My girls will go all out on Friday night,” Head Coach Bankole Olowookere said.
Olowookere, who led the Flamingos to their last two World Cup ventures, will most likely rely on first-leg two-goal heroine Queen Joseph, lone-goal scorer Zainab Raji and Kaosarat Olanrewaju to start at the fore, with Shakirat Moshood, Muinat Rotimi and Philomena Isaiah supplying the passes from the midfield.
Goalkeeper and captain Christiana Uzoma and defenders Azeezat Oduntan, Hannah Ibrahim, Christiana Sunday and Jumai Adebayo are also likely to start.
The Confederation of African Football has selected Cameroonian official Marie Noelle Etong to be the referee, with her compatriots Marcelle Teikeu and Innocentia Ntangti as assistant referee 1 and fourth official, respectively, while Chadian Ngarassoum Victorine will be assistant referee 2.
Oumou Souleymane Kane from Mauritania will be the commissioner, and Sabelo Maphosa-Sibindi from Zimbabwe will be in the role of referee assessor.
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Former president of the initially 15-member West African Football Union (WAFU), Chief Jonathan Boytie Ogufere, has expressed his heartfelt condolences over the recent death of former national team captain and coach, Christian ‘Chairman’ Chukwu.
He remarked that the erstwhile Enugu Rangers’ defence stalwart will ‘be dearly missed’. In a personally signed letter of condolence, Ogufere described Chukwu, who died on Saturday, April 12, in Enugu after a brief illness at 74, as a ‘hero of our time and a friend’.
The nonagenarian recalled with nostalgia how he nearly recruited the young Chukwu for his P & T Vasco da Gama Football Club of Enugu, adding he was impressed with how the ‘Field Marshal Christian Chukwuemeka ‘Chairman ‘ Chukwu (MFR), conducted himself throughout his career as he led both the national team, the then Green Eagles and his beloved Enugu Rangers to many conquests.
“I join numerous others to mourn the transition of the legendary Christian Chukwu, a hero of our time and friend,” the Ugbugba of Okpe Kingdom wrote.
“As one of the young academicals discovered after the end of the Civil War in 1970, I tried to enlist into my club, the P & T Vasco da Gama Football Club of Enugu but he was fair and frank in informing me that he had already joined Enugu Ranges Football Club, and I respected that attitude. From the rivalries between the two clubs, his exploits as a central defender were very visible.”
He continued: “Christian Chukwu emerged at the national level as a trustworthy and formidable captain of the national team who led by example.
“He was one of the heroes during the Golden age of Nigerian football when I was one of the Board Members of the Nigeria Football Association under the chairmanship of Chief Sunday Dankaro as Nigeria won the Africa Cup of Nations in 1980 for the first time where Christian Chukwu as captain of the Green Eagles was declared the best player of the tournament. He led the national team in several battles, which endeared him to millions of football lovers.
“After his playing days, he showed his talents through coaching in Nigeria and abroad.
“I express my sincere condolences to the family he left behind, the football family and the country in general. He will be dearly missed.
“May the good Lord grant his noble soul eternal rest,” he noted.
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Remo Stars are coasting to what will be their greatest moment ever, a win of the Nigeria Premier Football League title, as they recorded a 1-0 win over Shooting Stars in Ibadan in a match played behind closed doors.
In doing so, they achieved their sixth double of the season, having earlier beaten Shooting Stars in the first stanza of the league.
They maintained the seven-point lead over second-placed Rivers United, who also beat Sunshine Stars 1-0 in Port Harcourt.
After a ding-dong affair, Alex Oyowah scored the vital goal for Remo Stars from a right-wing cross from Ismail Sodiq.
In another match, Ikorodu City continued to work tenaciously to obtain a continental ticket as they held El Kanemi to a 1-1 draw.
SUNDAY RESULTS
- El Kanemi 1-1 Ikorodu City
- Niger Tornados 1-1 Bayelsa United
- Heartland 0-0 Kwara United
- Plateau United 1-0 Akwa United
- Rivers United 1-0 Sunshine Stars
- Shooting Stars 0-1 Remo Stars
- Bendel United 1-1 Nasarawa United
SATURDAY
- Katsina United 0-0 Abia Warriors
- Enyimba 2-1 Kano Pillars
- Lobi Stars 2-4 Enugu Rangers
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