Sports
Senate To Grant NFF Autonomy
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) autonomy bill is set for final reading at the Senate, Sen. Adamu Gumba, Chairman, Senate Committee on Sports, has said.
Gumba told newsmen that his committee had packaged the bill for final reading at plenary.
“I presented the bill to the Senate; it was read the first and second times and we have conducted public hearing.
“Hopefully, before the end of the year, it will be taken for final reading; so, that is where we are.
“We have done almost everything ready for presentation at plenary and once it is presented, then it will be taken,’’ Gumba said.
The senator also said that both houses of the National Assembly would jointly seat to harmonise the bill before sending it to President Goodluck Jonathan, for assent.
“At the end of the day, we will have a conference of some selected members of both chambers of the National Assembly committees on sports and adopt clauses that are well prepared.
“It is the tradition where you have a bicameral National Assembly.
“Both chambers will have to jointly seat to iron out areas of differences,’’ Gumba added.
Gumba noted that the momentum gathered by football in the country, in recent times, started with the Senate.
He attributed the success at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations to the Senate’s honest criticism of the declining state of sports, especially football, in the country.
Gumba said other benefits that derived from the Senate’s passion for the development of sports included the national retreat on sports hosted by Jonathan with special emphasis on football.
Others are the public hearing on sports and the inspection of the six national stadiums in the country to look at the facilities available.
The bill has passed first and second readings at the House of Representatives.
A public hearing had also been conducted on the bill.
The proposed law is expected to give NFA powers to pilot its affairs without interference from any quarter.
It will also help to bring peace to the football circle, stop the indiscriminate sacking of elected board members of NFA and re-define who becomes a board member.
The law will also re-define the powers of the board members and management of football in the country.
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