Sports
Fecafoot Slashes Eto’o’s Ban To Eight Months
The Cameroon Football Federation (Fecafoot)’s Executive Committee has reduced Samuel Eto’o’s 15-match ban to eight months.
This means the former African Footballer of the Year will miss just four competitive matches before August.
The decision was taken in the early hours of Saturday following a lengthy meeting of Fecafoot.
Cameroon president Paul Biya had asked officials to reconsider the controversial sanction.
Eto’o was given the sanction after leading a strike by players of the national team in a row over late payment of appearance fees.
The Cameroon team refused to play a friendly in Algeria in November because they had not been paid promised bonuses.
The teams played two friendlies in three days in Morocco but then refused to travel to Algeria in protest over not receiving the funds.
Eto’o himself did not challenge the ban, which would have ruled him out of the whole of qualifying for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations and a large part of the preliminary campaign for the World Cup in Brazil in 2014.
The striker’s punishment had been widely condemned in Cameroon, where the former Barcelona and Inter Milan striker enjoys widespread popularity because of his performances at both club level and with the Indomitable Lions.
Cameroon’s federation has since agreed to pay $500,000 to the Algerian federation in damages after the game, for which more than 40,000 tickets were sold, had to be called off.
Vice captain Enoh Eyong also had his ban reduced and he will miss just one game when Cameroon begin their bid to qualify for the 2013 African Nations Cup finals in February.
A $2,000 fine on Tottenham Hotspur defender Benoit Assou-Ekotto for failing to show up for the two matches in Morocco was rescinded.
Hon Dike who spoke with sports journalists shortly after the flag off the 2024 edition of Chairman’s Football Unity Tournament at Botem Tai in Tai LGA, said the tournament is an annual event to promote peace and unity in Tai as well identify budding talents in the area for global competition.
The opening ceremony of the tournament was more like a carnival was witnessed by huge crowd including prominent indigenes of Ogoni Kingdom, sports lovers and people from all works of life.
The LGA boss revealed that special sports committee will be setup in the area to work out modalities to strengthen sports development in Tai.
He advised the participants in the tournament from various wards in the LGA to play the game by the rules and conduct themselves in a peaceful and orderly manner and use the opportunity to showcase their talents.
Hon Dike further disclosed that his administration will also give priority attention to skills development among the youth to enhance their human capacity and promote enterprise development in the area.
Earlier in his address the Chairman of Tai LGA Football Council, Elder Wisdom Gorgor said the annual football competition has been a unifying factor in Tai LGA that need to be sustained to forge more unity and development in the area.
He urged the participants to see the competition as an opportunity to embrace football as a full career and earn sustainable livelihood.
Elder Gorgor who commended the Chairman of Tai LGA, Hon Dike for his visionary leadership and tremendous development achievements recorded in the LGA under his administration, appealled to the Chairman to build a Mini Sports Stadium in the area to promote sporting activities.
The training was held at the Sani Abacha Stadium Indoor Basketball Court in Kano last Saturday.
According to the Vice President and Head of NBA Nigeria, Gbemisola Abudu, the event was part of the league’s commitment to growing broader basketball ecosystem in Nigeria and making the game more accessible across the country.
“Our first Jr. NBA clinic in Kano speaks to our commitment to growing the game in Nigeria and creating more opportunities for boys and girls to learn and play the game,” Abudu said.
“Nigeria has a rich basketball history and abundance of talent, which is evident every time you watch an NBA game. We look forward to continuing to engage with basketball stakeholders, business leaders and members of the community to further the game’s reach and impact on young people around the country,” she added.
The 2024 basketball initiative clinics of NBA Nigeria also included the league’s inaugural Jr. NBA elite camp for 150 boys and age-16 girls held at the American International School in Lagos in July.
Others include the NBA’s building of 1,000 courts in Africa over the next decade, Nigeria’s Festival Coins and Salubata named the top two winning businesses at NBA Africa Triple-Double Accelerator’s inaugural Demo Day in New York City held last September, and the third edition of “NBA Meets Art,” a curated installation celebrating basketball through the lens of Nigerian art and culture as part of West Africa’s premier art fair Art X Lagos, held in November.
Central to this vision is the federation’s investment in capacity building, evident in the just-concluded one-week Level 1 Badminton World Federation (BWF) Coaching Course, which marked a significant milestone for Nigerian badminton.
Held in Abuja, the course brought together 13 young coaches from across Nigeria. The last time such a course was held in the country was in 2017, making this a historic and transformative step.
The training was facilitated by the Badminton Confederation of Africa (BCA) in partnership with the Badminton Federation of Nigeria (BFN) and conducted by Dr. Ahmed Radah, the BCA Development Manager.
Radah, impressed by the talent he witnessed, praised Nigeria’s potential.
“Nigeria is blessed with immense talent and a strong badminton tradition. I believe this country has what it takes to dominate on the global stage,” he remarked.
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