Sports
Countdown Begins For FIFA Club W/Cup
The FIFA Club World Cup will be held on African soil for the first time in December 2013 when Morocco hosts the august tournament in Aghadir Marrakech. With just over two months to go before the tenth edition of FIFA Club World Cup kicks off in the city of Agadir with an opening match between Raja Casablanca and Auckland on 11 December, the countdown is well underway. The Local Organising Committee (LOC) unveiled the official Emblem earlier in the month.
So far, five clubs have qualified for tournament and these are Bayern Munich, the reigning UEFA Champions League winners, Oceania champions, Auckland City FC, CONCACAF Champions League winners CF Monterrey while South America champions, Atletico Mineiro and the first of the two African clubs Raja Casablanca who will be representing Morocco, the host nation. The CAF Champions League winners will be known by the second week in November and will join Raja Casablanca as the two African sides in the competition.
The launch of the official Emblem took place during a glittering ceremony held recently in Casablanca. The unveiling coincided with the 100 days before the tournament kick-off.
According to Tidesports source, the official Emblem was revealed to guests at the end of a colourful show in which famous models wearing fabulous traditional kaftans inspired by the colours of the seven qualified teams paraded across the stage, accompanied by children who were also dressed in the participating teams’ colours and wearing each of the teams’ pennants.
The emblem for this tenth edition of the competition has the characteristic shape of the FIFA Club World Cup trophy, decorated with patterns influenced by the ancient Moroccan art of zellige (ceramic mosaics), thereby combining the spirit of the competition with the visual imagery of the host country. This Official Emblem evokes Morocco that is open, welcoming and multicultural.
The delicacy of the patterns, which are dominated by the colours of the national flag, reflects the high quality of play to be expected in this magical competition, which will see the best clubs from each of the six confederations, plus Raja Casablanca, battle it out on Moroccan turf.
The unveiling of the official Emblem marked the one hundred days before kick-off and the gorgeous ceremony and celebratory mood showed that the countdown is truly underway.
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