Sports
Anambra FA Prepares For Elections
The Chairman, Anambra
State Football Association (ASFA) Normalisation Committee, Ephraim Chukwuemeka, has said the election into the board of the Anambra State FA would be conducted before Decembe 25.
Chukwuemeka said this at the Anambra football stakeholders meeting held with members of his committee in Awka on Monday.
He said the committee was determined to do a thorough job.
“As part of our mandate, we will do a thorough job and restore normalcy to Anambra FA that has been without constituted leadership since February 28,’’ Chukwuemeka said.
He said that the election timetable would be released.
The chairman said screening of the local government council candidates as conducted by the former committee would be upheld.
Chukwuemeka, currently chairman of the Abia FA added that only the screening of the candidates for the board election would be re-conducted.
He, however, re-stated that his committee would not be intimidated in the course of carrying out their assignment.
“Anambra football has been cheated for about a year now over a lack of an elected executive board. We want you to cooperate with us maximally, so that we can lead the state back to normalcy,’’ Chukwuemeka said.
Olisa Aniuno, one of the top contenders for the chairmanship position expressed confidence in the ability of the committee’to do a thorough job that would be acceptable to all stakeholders.
Aniuno called for understanding and patience on the part of the members so that the committee could articulate and execute their programme without pressures.
Mike Umeh, a former chairman of the board and a candidate urged the committee to clear all obstacles, “including the court case that stalled the conduct of the election in August, so that there will not be impediments to a successful conduct of the election.’’
Umeh called for early release of timetable to enable the contestants to start early preparations.
Tidesports reports that the 4-man committee led by Chukwuemeka was constituted by the Nigeria Football Federation when the Iloegbune Okoye committee was adjudged to have failed to deliver elections into the board, within the allotted three months’ timeframe.
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