$100,000 match fixing scam tears embattled NFF

Sacked Super Eagles coach, Siasia

If feelers from within the Glass House is anything to go by, then, very soon, the nation will wake to hear that the gale sweeping that house is an ongoing one. It is authoritative that there was and remains a silent war between two senior officials of the NFF over tips meant for the match officials of the Nigeria-Guinea game. 

Chairman of a strategic committee in the NFF was mandated to deliver $100,000 to the match officials as their ‘social support fund.’ The chairman of the said committee, a South-South person was alleged did not deliver the money.

Whilst the more senior official of the federation asked, why and how the refereeing team did not render minimal support especially the penalty to Nigeria. However, like a calculating soldier, the more senior official decided to play the Siasia sack saga out first before reconstituting the committees including this particular one.

The chairman of the said committee who sees himself as central and indispensable in this administration is now feeling the heat that he has been used to destroy his South-South brother (Siasia) and wants to be dumped for some others whilst the big boss feels with the situation of things, as the Sheriff in the house he must call the shots and take all the credits and hollows.

The Sheriff was seen as a weakling for calling on the members of the factional NFA led by Jarret Tenebe to join the current board in the renewed bid to salvage what is left of Nigerian football. However, a secret move is ongoing to mobilise members of the 15-man board, especially the three newly admitted ones to impeach the sheriff. The nation will hear more if some other forces do not take off the affairs of football in the new week.

CAN ATHLETICS BE NIGERIA’S GRACE IN LONDON 2012?

At the last All Africa Games in Maputo, Mozambique, Nigeria Sports Commission officials would have been so grateful to the sport of athletics for bailing out the country from a deep rooted embarrassment she would have tremendously suffered with bad planning.

After the event, Sports Minister, Yusuf Suleiman, indicated that the country’s athletes will be given all the required support to excel at the London 2012 Olympics. Part of the measures was the employment of Mr. Innocent Egbunike who is expected to use his experience to salvage what is possible in the London games but gets a four-year coaching deal as national coach to have a long term plan for Rio 2016.

Those who know warned the nation to abandon any hope as it is as good as saying the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, (AFN) and the National Sports Commission, (NSC) have no agenda for the London Games at the moment. And from all reckoning it is going to be the usual last minute hustle, bustle and shuffle.

Two weeks ago Suleiman mandated his lieutenants to work in conjunction with AFN officials to fashion a winning strategy for London. AFN officials were not and are still not forthcoming with comments on the progress that has been made.

Athletics buffs have always harped on the need to prepare early for the big Games, but nothing will as a tradition be done until the 11th hour.

“This has been our regular practice and it seems our administrators feel comfortable with it. Our participation at the last World athletics Championships in Daegu was a clear indication that we would fail in the Olympics next year,” said a veteran coach.

JOHN OBUH AND HIS SICK EMPLOYERS:

By all rational applications, John Obuh remains the most successful coach in the employ of the Nigeria Football Federation. He is being owed 13 months salaries. The man asked for his entitlement. The fraudulent employers now asked for his contract. Whereas, the idiots in the Glass House know they were fraudulent to all intents and purposes and knew they had used him to achieve such noble goals and ask for a contract they never signed with the coach.

This is sad and very unprofessional. They also claimed to have sacked Uche Eucharia citing also too that she has no contract. This is definitely an official 419-mode they use to cheat on their staffers. Can somebody tell me why these coaches will ever trust them and not be encouraged in such circumstances to take ‘tips’ from agents and even players?

SCANDALS OF SEXUAL NATURE IN NIGERIAN ATHLETICS

Solomon Ogba, AFN President

A female long jump champion was beaten by her boyfriend in Algeria during the 9^th All African Games. The crux of the matter is about sex scandal in the camp. I recalled reporting the incident which was vehemently denied then as a blatant lie. Those who are alive and know it is the truth know it was true. I can mention names of the key parties. All the key actors are still to date very relevant in the sport. There is a current board member of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) who was involved in a similar situation some years back. I also recall with accurate ken that I gave a clue to how some useless old men for daring to ask kids (yes, they were Under 20 year olds) for sex before they can represent Nigeria.

These shameless goats who call themselves ‘coaches’ and are supposed to be guardian ad litem to these kids wanted them to open their laps to be wantonly slept with because they must represent Nigeria.

One of them, a renown drug courier (he supplied 95% of the Nigerians in the sports caught with drug cases the drugs with which they are caught. A clear case was the 2010 Commonwealth games in India) gave the “little girls” (many of them are old enough to be retiring from child bearing though their ages were criminally beaten backwards) that when your coach sleeps with you, it helps you to perform better on the track!

THE CASE OF CITIZEN EKIBA:

One of the girls who happened to have come from a well-trained Islamic background, let’s call her, Ekiba, objected to being slept with by one of the team’s coaches in France where the world youth championships took place earlier this year.

She was verbally harassed so much so that she was called all manners of names. Upon getting to find out that I already know of all the details because unlike my other issues, I wanted to call them to order diplomatically and let the girl grow in her career. So, I opted for a route I thought has an oversight function on them.

Instead, the girl was called and further lambasted. She was threatened never to have a space in the sport even if she is the best in the world. Every conspirator in this matter are supposed to be parents.

Their own daughters will face worse annihilations than they give to other people’s daughters. Their daughters will suffer unbearable hardships and terrible inhibitions 100 times which their fathers and mothers inflict unjustly on other people’s daughters.

The AFN was going to set up a committee to investigate the matter. They ordered her and her coach to come to Abuja for trials as if they were felons. She was writing her examinations then. I called some people who matter to tell the federation’s bosses to allow sleeping dogs lie lest I will blow out more damning facts at my disposal.

The issue is: what becomes of that case? Will these swindlers (because that is what they have become) have their way and kill the career of this young, innocent athlete because she won’t allow some fools to take advantage of her despite her talents? The more painful irony? She has been ordered by her parents to dump athletics.

BULL IN THE CHINA SHOP:

Now, it is time to call the wild war shots finally. It is time for war. I think the lion is set to roar loud. Its loin has been badly bruised. This lion will fight fiercely. Some persons must go down. Either the forces of evil go down or truth and justice prevails. I am set for the very worst.

To show I am prepared, I have all documentary and other evidences adducible about how Nigeria has lied and cheated in age-grade international championships in the last two years.

I will send same to the IAAF secretariat in a petition. I will make the copies of my investigations (a 21-page material) public thereafter. I will also cause the National Assembly to as a matter of public interest cause the investigation of these sex abuse allegations and many more against the current board of the federation. (Ironically, the federation’s Vice President, a sound responsible and respected person, is a member of the parliament.)

If for this cause anyone thinks they can be funny, I am well prepared. I will be waiting. I wish them luck but if luck runs against them, as it has always been in previous encounters when I opened the case of the “Fantastic Four” of the then board of the NFF led by Sani Abdullahi Lulu, I will return to tell the story. They know like I know what transpired. They came after me but I triumphed.

SOLOMONIC INJUSTICE:

King Solomon in the Bible was reputed to be blessed with a deep wide well of wisdom. It is also expected that every Solomon is a wise person who nurses and tends the fear of God in all they do.

Ann is an athletes who recorded 58.5secs in the hurdles. Ajoke Odumosu is expiring. Odumosu never ran 58 secs before leaving Nigeria. Ann had to be excluded from the national team because she denied Delta State a gold medal in the event at the last National Sports Festival in Port Harcourt. What a way to punish an athlete?

BADA TO GO:

Yusuf Ali I was told will be replacing Policeman Sunday Bada as technical director. So, its time to use and dump those they have come this far. I hope the new plan and era will be better than the one they want to change.

Hurray! SWAN wakes up at last!

I could not believe my eyes that Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) has expressed serious concern over the dwindling fortunes of Nigerian football in recent time. This is welcome. Hope they won't go back to sleep on their oars?

The sportswriters’ body noted that the failure of the former African Champions, Enyimba of Aba, to qualify for the final of CAF Champions League, having raised the hope of teeming Nigerian populace that they were on the verge of making another history as well as Sunshine of Akure’s loss at home in the CAF Confederation Cup in the first leg encounter is also as testament to the declining state of the Nigerian league.

“Obviously, something is fundamentally wrong with the Nigerian football. The Nigerian football authorities are, therefore, expected to address the ugly situation with immediate effect, if Nigerian soccer must move ahead. The Nigerian football, at the moment, needs an urgent reformation to move forward.

“The National Sports Commission (NSC) should go beyond funding of the game, but should take its supervisory role more serious and also be prepared to take the bull by the horn to deliver the round leather game from its present captivity.

“The sports commission should work in collaboration with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to find a lasting solution to the lingering crises. This, to a larger extent, has affected the genuine growth of the game because any house divided against itself can never stand.

“In the interest of Nigerian football, all the warring factions should sheathe their swords because certainly, there cannot be any meaningful progress amid crisis. The board members, when they meet on Friday, should allow national interest to be their overriding factor with a view to moving Nigerian football forward,” the statement said.

The body recalls that this is one of the darkest moments of Nigerian football. “It is sad to note that this is the first time since 1986 Nigeria would fail to qualify for the African Nations Cup. It is also worrisome that the Super Falcons, who were African Champions for a  sixth time record, did not make it to All-Africa Games last held in Maputo and are already out of the Olympic Games slated for London 2012,” SWAN’s Deputy Secretary General Babs Oyetoro, said in a statement.

Football free fall is divinely orchestrated – Maigari

Sani Lulu: I am better than Maigari

*My administration better than Maigari’s - Lulu

Nigeria’s two consecutive football administration may have taken their childish theatrics to the higher level of insulting Nigerians with their mundane but pedestrian thinking with Aminu Maigari, the sitting President of the illegal NFF saying the free fall of football fortunes under his administration in divine while his immediate predecessor, Abdullahi Sani Lulu, saying his administration is better than Aminu Maigari’s board.

Two sides of the same coin! One was a looting agency no wonder the board members are enjoying ongoing prosecution with the EFCC. The other is peopled with practical football illiterates (save Deji Tinubu).

Ask, is it God who says Maigari’s board should lack vision, ideas, managerial ability, inability to interpret its own laws written in simple English language, or lack understanding of the very reasons why they are there: football development.

The two administrations are very adept in making monies miss ($238,000 and the latest, N54m in the NPL). They are very good in spending N100m on every outing of the Super Eagles. They are very good in fighting Davidson Owumi and taking octogenarians to cadet championships. Both Lulu and Maigari are functions of anomic bedlam.

 

Nigerian football needs technical commission-Peter

Immediate past Assistant General Secretary, (Technical) and former Nigeria national team coach, James Peter, has called on the Nigeria Football Federation, (NFF) to set up a technical commission made up of experienced former national team managers who can guide the development of football in the nation.

He said the likes of coaches Kashimawo Laloko, Adegboye Onigbinde, Shaibu Amodu and a host of others including himself are still very active and relevant to the growth of the nation’s football.
The former Super Eagles coach opined that not that himself and the other older coaches in the country want the job of coaching the national teams at all cost, but that what he feels is right for the country’s football to do is get the technical commission to build the framework of development around the national teams’ coaches, create a programme of training nurseries under the tutelage of the state FAs.

“The idea of the technical committee is outdated. In other advanced football climes, what you have is the technical commission. Former national team coaches are those who people the commission. They form the playing pattern of the nation’s football which is carried to younger club coaches and youth development programmes. They scrutinize the lists of coaches. See the case in Brazil.”

He further said that what made coach Shaibu Amodu what he is today is because when he came into the coaching job, he worked under Adegboye Onigbinde. Myself and older coaches like Sebastine Broadericks, Chris Udumezue, Joe Erico, and a whole lot  of others acquired the needed experience that had led us far in this coaching business.

Speaking on the recent failure of the Super Eagles and the Super Falcons to qualify for the 2012 Africa Nations Cup in Gabon & Equatorial Guinea and London Olympics respectively, he said the federation should invoke the terms of the contract they had with the coaches that whatever it says they should go by it.

He said that “the beauty of the job of coaching is the uncertainty that surrounds it”. He noted that the hiring and firing of coaches is part of the job, as such, any coach that is sacked is not because as an individual is not good but because the terms of the contract which would have specified what to follow when the event turns the other way round.
Peter insisted that even though the current national teams’ coaches are sacked or retained what is important is that they should be attached with experienced coaches on the technical commission so that they can learn from them.