Sports
2014 W/Cup: Senegal Yet To Decide Play Off Venue
Senegal are still to decide
where to play their World Cup play-off second leg against Ivory Coast, failing to meet Fifa’s 20th September deadline.
The match cannot take place in Senegal’s national stadium as they are banned from playing there after riots when the sides met in October 2012.
Senegal Football Association president Augustin Senghor told Tidesports source: “We will play in Morocco or Guinea.
“We have meetings today and tomorrow and then we will decide.”
Africa’s final round of qualification for next year’s tournament in Brazil sees 10 teams involved in five two-legged ties to be played in October and November.
And football’s world governing body Fifa had requested for the African associations involved to submit by Friday the details of dates, venues and kick-off times for the games.
Senegal were banned from playing at Leopold Sedar Senghor stadium for one year after their fans rioted during the Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Ivory Coast in Dakar, forcing the match to be abandoned with about 15 minutes to play.
Ivory Coast were 2-0 up at the time and the result eventually stood with the Elephants claiming a 6-2 aggregate victory.
Senghor believes “Fifa will understand that we need more time compared to the other associations to decide because of our stadium suspension”.
He added: “We do not have a stadium in Senegal with the facilities and capacity to play the qualifier against Ivory Coast.
“So it is sure we will play this match outside of Senegal.
“We played our last ‘home’ matches in Morocco and Guinea and it is important for us to play our final qualification match in an environment we know very well.
“We have time enough to decide – it is just for the second leg in November. We will take our time to make a good decision.”
Meanwhile, Senghor gave his backing to coach Alain Giresse over the Frenchman’s policy to select only players who are playing regular first-team football – a decision which has led to the omission of Chelsea striker Demba Ba.
“The selection of players is the domain of the coach and in our way of working we let him have the responsibility for his choices,” Senghor said.
“We have players who are more motivated and every player that wants to be selected knows that they have to work hard for their club in order to come back.
“It is up to every player to battle for his place in the national team.”
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