Sports
CAF Fines Madagascar, Others Over Hooliganism
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has fined Madagascar, the Central African Republic and three clubs for various offences during matches organised by the continent’s football body.
The decisions were taken on Saturday at the meeting of CAF Disciplinary Committee held in Johannesburg.
The Malagasy Football Federation was fined 10,000 dollars for allowing their fans to throw plastic and glass bottles to the pitch during the 2012 Orange Nations Cup qualifier against Ethiopia on October 10 in Antananarivo.
However, half of the amount was suspended.
The Central African Republic was fined the same 10,000 dollars, half of which was also suspended for poor security arrangements, leading to the invasion of the pitch by fans.
The offence was committed during the Nations Cup qualifier against Algeria on October 10 in Bangui.
Tunisia’s Esperance de Tunis, Algeria’s JS Kabylie and TP Mazembe fell under the CAF axe for various offences in the CAF Champions League.
Esperance were fined 50,000 dollars to cover the cost of damages the club’s fans caused to facilities of the Cairo during their Champions League semi-final tie against Al Ahly on October 3. JSK, as the Algerian club is fondly known, will cough out 20,000 dollars over what CAF said was “repeated and abusive use of projectiles by spectators” in the Champions League semi-final tie against TP Mazembe on October 16 in Tizi Ouzou.
In addition, the club was ordered to play their next CAF inter club game behind closed doors.
Esperance were fined 15,000 dollars for their players’ misbehaviour during the first leg of the Champions League tie against TP Mazembe on October 31 in Lumumbashi.
Hosts, Mazembe were warned for ineffective security and organisational lapses in the match.
CAF said it would evaluate all aspects of the organisation of its Inter Club matches on November 12 at the Inter Clubs Organising Committee meeting.
The African soccer body said the performance of its referees in all its competitions would assessed at the next CAF Referee Committee scheduled for next month.
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor
