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LMC Fines Heartland N6.25m, Deducts Three Points

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The League Management Company (LMC) at the weekend sanctioned Heartland Football Club of Owerri following crowd trouble which marred their Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) fixture against champions Plateau United.
  Tidesports source reports that the club’s fans attacked centre referee Yusuf Garba, who they claimed made a number of questionable calls.
  Garba sustained injuries from the attack in the critthreeng8 fixture, which had ended in a 1-1 draw on April 22, and had to be treated at a nearby hospital.
The Owerri-based club side will now have to forfeit three points and play their next three home matches at the Dan Anyiam Stadium in Owerri behind closed doors.
The LMC revealed that it also fined the club N1.5 million.
It said this was for their fans’ encroachment after the game and their failure to restrict unauthorised persons to restricted areas during the match.
“For the assault on match officials, the LMC fined the club N1 million and ruled that they should pay N1.25 million as compensation to the match officials.
“Another N500,000 fine will be paid by Heartland for their failure to use and issue matchday tickets for record and crowd control purposes.
“They will pay another N1 million for issuing public statement capable of bringing the league to disrepute.
“For unfairly criticising and discrediting match officials who are officers or agents of the league, Heartland have also been fined N1 million,” the LMC said.
It also punished the club’s Team Manager, Mobi Oparaku, for his role in the incident.
The former Nigeria international has been suspended from all LMC activities for the next 10 games.
With the decision of the LMC, the former NPFL champions now face a tough task in maintaining their top-flight status as they sit in the last position on the table with 15 points from 18 games.
The club only gained promotion to the top-flight last season after spending a season in the Nigeria National League (NNL).
Tidesports source also reports that the LMC had docked three points from Sunshine Stars earlier in the season for a similar offence.
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Bundesliga: Kane Scores Hat-Trick As Bayern End Winless Streak

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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.

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Dosu Survives Ghastly Accident, Again

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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.

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Sports Development Going Down In Nigeria – Ex-International

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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

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