Sports
2015 Nations Cup: Qualifers Hold In Three Months
Qualifying for the 2015 African Cup of Nations will take place only three months next year, the Confederation of African Football has announced.
It means 144 fixtures, involving total of 48 teams in 12 groups of four, will have to be squeezed in between September and November.
The schedule has been designed to fit in with world governing body FIFA’s international match calendar.
There are no dates in 2014 before the World Cup finals take place in Brazil.
It is the first time that qualifying has had to be arranged around the World Cup since the Nations Cup was switched from even to odd years.
And with difficult transport links between some African nations, the tight fixture schedule could cause some problems – particularly on routes between the east and west of the continent.
A weekend match will be followed by a midweek game in three periods set aside by FIFA, with clubs obligated to release their players for international duty for the duration.
The dates are 1-9 September, 6-14 October and 10-18 November.
Namibia Football Association president John Muinjo believes the schedule is too demanding.
He told BBC Sport: “Playing six international games in three months is hard on the health of the players.
“Also, some federations do not have the financial resources to afford for their teams to travel in speed and comfort over long distances in such a short space of time.
“The smaller countries are going to be affected.”
At the end of the group phase, the winners of each group and the best three runners up will advance to the final phase of qualification for the tournament, which will be hosted by Morocco from 17 January to 7 February 2015.
CAF also announced that the Nations Cup qualification preliminary round, featuring up to 12 of the lowest ranked African sides in a two-legged play-offs, will take place in July and August.
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