Sports
Wike Pre-Season Tourney Will Be Covid-19 Compliant -Sirawoo
Permanent Secretary, Rivers State Ministry of Sports, Honour Sirawoo, has assured that the COVID-19 guidelines will be strictly followed during the second edition of the Governor Wike Pre Season Tourney.
He said this during a telephone conversation with Tidesports source, last Sunday.
According to him the safety COVID-19 protocols will be strictly followed during the pre-season tourney in the Garden City of Port Harcourt.
“Let me congratulate and commend the sports minister for his efforts, and praise my colleagues (sports journalists) for the pressure that they put on the system,” Honour Sirawoo said.
It will be recalled that the Governor Wike Pre Season Tourney Organising Committee chaired by Badawiy Bashir was inaugurated, last Monday.
And Hon Sirawoo declared that all the Covid-19 protocols would be strictly adhered to.
Hon Sirawoo continued: We have directed the committee handling the tournament to ensure that every Covid-19 protocol is adhered to. If you allow two persons to the stadium, they must be subjected to the appropriate screening and protocols. The distancing must be there.
“We want to enjoy good football. We have appealed to the teams to come along with certified copies of tests that they were subjected to, in order actually match our actions on the Covid-19 protocols.”
“Having said that, the Governor Wike Tournament Committee was inaugurated, last week. It is in the second edition, the first edition was fantastic and we saw benefits it brought to our people.
“Rivers State is the home of sports and football features prominently. People haven’t seen quality matches for some time due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” he added.
The Governor Wike Pre-Season Tourney will kick off on November 6, 2020 with Enyimba, Abia Warriors, Rivers United, Plateau United, Kwara United, Lobi Stars, Nasarawa United, Akwa United, MFM FC, Niger Tornadoes, Gombe United, Bayelsa United, Bendel Insurance, Goddosky FC and Cynosure FC expected to grace the event.
Venue of the tournament is Sharks Stadium, Port Harcourt.
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