Sports
FIFA Considers Nigeria For U20 Women’s World Cup Hosting
Federation of International Football Association (Fifa) is considering a bid from Nigeria for the hosting rights of the U20 Women’s World Cup for next year.
India and South Korea submitted bids for the 2020 U20 Women’s World Cup with the former named the 2020 U17 Women’s World Cup hosts in March.
Now, Fifa is reportedly looking beyond the Asian continent for the host of the U20 women’s event, hence Nigeria has a chance to become the first to stage a Fifa women’s tournament in Africa.
Sources close to Nigerian government authorities have disclosed that a bid was submitted following the reopening of the bidding process which initially elapsed last September.
In 2009, Nigeria successfully staged the 13th edition of the Fifa U17 World Cup which was won by Switzerland, with the Golden Eaglets finishing as runners-up, a success they aim to leverage on.
“We’ve [Nigeria] tendered a bid to host the Fifa U-20 Women’s World Cup and we believe we stand a bright chance of winning the hosting rights,” a source told newsmen.
“It has been a while, about 10 years now that we last hosted a major tournament. We think getting to host this tournament will be the beginning of great things for Nigeria sports, not just football.
“Many will be worried about Ahmad Ahmad and Amaju Pinnick’s fallout at Caf but Nigeria still has a strong presence in the international community of football. Let’s wait and see”, he said.
Corroborating development, a top NFF official close to Fifa confirmed officials of the world governing body are scheduled to visit the country next month for an inspection.
“Fifa are indeed considering handing Nigeria hosting rights of the 2020 U-20 Women’s World Cup,” the NFF official said.
“Fifa are also sending their officials here for an inspection tour in August and they will also support us to host with at least $4m.
“This will not be a burden to the Nigeria government when you eventually get the hosting rights. It’s an opportunity to develop our sporting infrastructures across the country”, he said.
Nigeria has participated in all the previous nine editions of the 16-nation competition and progressed to the final twice, before losing to Germany on the two occasions.
Japan are the defending champions of the U20 Women’s World Cup following their 3-1 final triumph over Spain in France in 2018.
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